Just last year, South Korea decided to get serious about making its mark on the cosmos. A big part of that was the development of the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), its own space agency. At the time, the agency outlined big plans to not only put South Koreans on the moon, but also to take them all the way to Mars.
While these plans line up with similar plans set in motion by NASA and other space agencies already — NASA hopes to put humans on the moon again with its Artemis missions – the Korean agency has now provided an updated timeline for when it hopes to establish its lunar base. According to a new report by The Korea Times, KASA wants to get its lunar base up and running by 2045, just a few decades from now. It’s a bold plan, but one that the space agency believes it can achieve in the given time frame.
Setting its plan in motion
While sharing details of its upcoming long-term national space exploration roadmap this month, KASA, said that it has four exploration areas it will be focusing on: Earth orbit, moon, heliosphere and deep space. Each of these categories will have its own core missions, including one mission to set up a lunar base by the year 2045. The agency says that it plans to develop landing and mobility technologies that are independent of any other agencies. This means South Korea won’t be relying on the product of research by NASA’s Artemis missions or any other agency’s attempts to put humanity back on the Moon.
Further, KASA noted that it plans to develop a next-generation lunar lander for logistical purposes by 2040. Then, within five more years, it plans to have developed and established a lunar economic base by 2045. From there, the agency hopes to be able to monitor solar activity and enhance space safety as a whole.
That isn’t all, though. The report also notes that South Korea’s space agency hopes to develop and deploy a solar observational satellite to the Lagrange Point L4 by 2035, allowing for greater understanding and study of our sun’s gravitational effects on Earth. Of course, pulling all of this off before then will take a lot of work, determination, and even some luck. But, if KASA is serious about making its mark on the cosmos, it could make the necessary moves to set up its lunar base and even set its sight on Mars in the future.
