Korea seeks to launch space economy via moon landing

Danuri lunar orbiter to be launched on Aug. 3

By Baek Byung-yeul

Korea is set to launch its first lunar orbiter, the Danuri, aboard SpaceX's rocket in the United States on August 3. The successful launch of the Danuri will mark the first step for Korea to join the space economy following other advanced countries active in the field, according to industry experts and government officials.

The space economy refers to the economy beyond our planet, including exploring deep space, extracting resources that are rare on Earth and developing technologies necessary for space exploration.

Space-related industries are drawing a lot of attention for their vast growth potential. In 2017, Morgan Stanley projected the global space industry to grow in size from $348 billion at the time to around $1 trillion by 2040. Meanwhile, Bank of America predicted in 2020 that the industry will grow in size to $1.4 trillion by 2030, showing that the growth potential of the industry is rising sharply.

The rapid growth might be possible because a few private sector players, such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, have set up their own space development companies and have been making huge investments into technological development.

"Securing space-related technologies can lead to the development of other industries, especially the defense sector, and ultimately, we can also expect to collect minerals that are not available on Earth,” Ahn Jae-myung, a professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), told The Korea Times.

“The Danuri lunar orbiter project is a program that orbits the moon, and the government sees a moon landing to be possible by the early 2030s. Its next mission, which is collecting resources there and returning to Earth, is a more difficult mission than simply landing on the moon. The plan should be carried out in the long run, but the economic benefits of implementing the plan are expected to be significant,” Ahn said.

Ahn added that he cannot say exactly how many years it will take for Korea to reap any economic benefits, such as being able to utilize resources found in space, but that it will not be in the very distant future.

“These activities will lead to exploring metal-rich asteroids in the end. I don't know how long it will take to achieve this goal, but I don't think it'll take a hundred years and it will be visible in 10 or 20 years,” Ahn said. “Creating a human-friendly village on a planet outside Earth is also a direction we should pursue,” he added.

Danuri, a stepping stone

From that perspective, the government has high expectations for the Danuri, hoping that the lunar orbiter will become a stepping stone for the country's space development plans.

Beyond just supporting space-related research activities, President Yoon Suk-yeol vowed that the government “will open the era of the space economy,” and promised to help the public and private sectors create economic benefits through research and development in the space industry and space-related products and services.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that our future depends on space, which is a key area of national competitiveness,” Yoon said during his visit to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute's (KARI) Daejeon office on July 6.

After presenting pizza and coffee to the KARI researchers who succeeded in launching Korea's Nuri rocket into space on June 21, the president said, “The government will make a bold investment and establish the Korea Aerospace Administration to thoroughly support the space industry."

"Starting with the launch of the lunar orbiter in August of this year, we will develop a lunar lander by 2031, and expand participation in the Artemis program,” Yoon added. The Artemis program is the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) human-led moon exploration project.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), which supervises the country's space program, views that the successful completion of the Danuri will be an important starting point for such a plan.

“We are making every effort to prepare for the launch and operation of Korea's first lunar orbiter, the Danuri,” Lee Sang-ryool, the president of KARI said at a press conference in June. “Through the Danuri, we will do our best to secure the technology that will be a mainstay of the country's space exploration technology and become one of the world's seven space powers.”

The Danuri, which recently arrived at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, is currently going through about a month-long inspection at the launch site.

Weighing 678 kilograms, the Danuri will be equipped with five pieces of observation equipment using technology developed in Korea and a ShadowCam device from NASA to observe the darkest parts of the moon's surface.

If the Aug. 3 launch goes well, the Danuri will sail through space for about four and a half months and settle in lunar orbit in December. Circling 100 kilometers over the moon, the orbiter will conduct scientific missions, including finding a landing site for spacecraft on the moon, measuring the magnetic field and gamma rays, and testing space-based internet communication from February to December 2023.