KAIST to Work With NASA on Space Projects

By Cho Jin-seo

Staff Reporter

KAIST said Monday that it has agreed with the U.S. space agency NASA to work together in wide-ranging areas of space technology, including small-size satellites and land exploration rovers.

The Daejeon-based school said that it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ames Research Center (ARC) of the U.S. space agency, last Saturday in California.

It is KAIST's latest attempt to globalize its research and educational system. Since the arrival of former MIT professor Suh Nam-pyo as its president in 2006, the school has been inviting donations and faculty from overseas while setting up ties with foreign schools and teaching all of its freshman classes in English.

According to the school, potential areas of collaboration will include satellite communications and navigation systems, planetary exploration, lunar science, rovers and small satellites. Other areas of mutual interest can be added through future discussions, it said.

``I am delighted with this outcome. This potential collaboration will be of historical significance for KAIST as well as for NASA as it will allow the two organizations to combine their expertise,'' Suh said in a statement.

South Korea's space industry is in its fledgling stage, with an annual national budget of 310 billion won for 2008, about one hundredth of that of the United States. This year, Korea is sending its first astronaut to orbit on a Russian rocket in April, and is planning to shoot its first rocket into space in December, also helped by Russian technology.

Knowing that it will take some time to get tangible results from the space science field, KAIST set a modest short-term goal. The first step of the collaboration with ARC will be exchanging information and materials, holding joint workshops and seminars and dispatching research personnel to ARC, Suh said.

``KAIST-educated technicians will have opportunities to contribute to NASA programs, while learning new approaches to research and development by working on large NASA projects. Through this effort, the U.S.-Korea relationship in science, technology and education will be further strengthened immeasurably," he added.

Ames is located in Silicon Valley in California and is the NASA branch that specializes in building high-tech equipment and devising methods of space exploration, in partnership with many schools and research institutions on the U.S. west coast.

KAIST researchers have been actively involved in Korea's space technology projects since a team led by professor Choi Soon-dal launched Korea's first satellite ``Uribyeol 1'' in 1992, built and launched with help from the University of Surrey in England.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr