Korea Builds Its Own Lunar Lander

The race to the Moon starts to look more as an obligation rather than a competition, with Korea adding up to the increasing number of the countries which turn their face to our natural satellite. It feels like it's the normal thing to do if you want to get noticed as an important nation. Recently, South Korea has finished developing a lunar module of their own, completely homemade, and appear to have done a great job.

A team of experts from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), led by Kwon Se-jin, a professor of aerospace engineering at the respective institution, in collaboration with engineers from a local company called Space Solutions worked hard for six years on the project. Their efforts paid off at last, as they unveiled a 40-centimeter (15.5-inch) tall, 25-kilogram (55-pound) heavy module propelled by an environment-friendly liquid fuel supplying a rocket engine that can sport a maximum thrust of 350 newtons.

 

Their lunar lander can also carry an additional payload of 20 kilograms, which could be used for transporting extra scientific instruments onto the surface of the Moon. This miniature lander is in many ways more fit for a lunar exploration and research operation than the bigger and heavier similar devices developed by NASA, and for this reason its Korean designers asked NASA to assess options on integrating it into their research activities.

 

"We have approached NASA over the possibilities of using our engine," shared Kwon to Korea Times. "Lunar-landers are critical in developing lunar spacecraft, but advanced nations have been careful to protect their core technologies, so I think this is a big deal for us," he stated, adding that NASA's 100- to 200-kilogram heavy modules cost about $100 million, nearly twice more than the Korean one.

NASA will discuss the possibility of involving Korea in the International Lunar Network (ILN) project which plans to eventually place a robotic network of six to eight fixed or mobile science devices on the Moon in an attempt to replace the old Apollo program's lunar study hardware.