[Seize the Future] South Korea Sets Sights on Independent Moon Landing by 2032

Eonjeyo Deep Talk Ep. 12 – South Korea’s Lunar Exploration Project

[Editor’s Note] This section introduces a new episode from the YouTube channel ‘Seize.’ ‘Seize’ is Dong-A Science’s new media channel that creates science videos for future generations.

In 2032, a South Korean lunar lander is set to go to the Moon. This is the second phase of the lunar exploration project, which has been underway since October 2024 by the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). It aims to secure essential landing and surface exploration technologies for space exploration. Can South Korea succeed in landing on the Moon with its own technology? 

To explore this question, Seize met with Shim Chae-kyung, Director of the Center for Planetary Exploration at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), who has been involved in South Korea’s lunar exploration from its early stages. Director Shim also contributed to completing the world’s first global polarization map of the Moon using the lunar orbiter ‘Danuri.’ Later this year, she is scheduled to send the high-energy particle detector ‘LUSEM’ (Lunar Space Environment Monitor) to the Moon as part of the Artemis program, a crewed lunar exploration mission led by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 

LUSEM will be carried on a private lander. The company in question is ‘Intuitive Machines,’ an American space company that partially succeeded in the first-ever private moon landing in 2024. In an era where foreign space companies can deliver various observation instruments to the Moon, why does South Korea need its own lunar lander? 

 
Director Shim said, “Many aspects of space technology are related to national security, so it is important to secure independent space exploration capabilities.” She added, “Based on lunar exploration technology, we will go on to Mars and asteroids.”

The present and future of K-space exploration, as told by Dr. Shim Chae-kyung, can be seen in the video titled ‘Full-Scale Science Prediction Broadcast Eonjeyo Deep Talk – South Korea’s Lunar Exploration,’ uploaded on April 8.

● Watch Eonjeyo Deep Talk Ep. 12 – South Korea’s Lunar Exploration Project now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGckZ8YjvHc