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Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Lunar Exploration _ Korea to the Moon

Posted by: Paolo Oct 24 2009, 07:44 AM

The 23 October issue of the French magazine "Air et Cosmos" has a nice 5-pages article on South Korean space (plus a one-page update on ExoMars).
It also includes mentions of South Korean unmanned moon flights. An orbiter could be flown in 2020 and a lander in 2025. At the latest IAC congress in Daejeon the president of the KARI space agency Joo-Jin Lee presented the plan. Using an SKM solid fuel upper stage the KSLV-II launcher could inject 550 kg toward the Moon.
The use of 2 KSLV-IIs, one for a orbiter, the second for a lander, could also provide for a low-cost sample return mission.
In any case, any lunar exploration program still has to be approved by the Korean government.

I can't stop wondering what the North could be up to if the South really launched a lunar mission (provided of course it will still exist by the 2020s...)

Posted by: Paolo Oct 24 2009, 09:49 AM

Speaking of which http://www.reportshop.co.kr/kstudy/11111/D11110605.html

Posted by: Paolo Feb 5 2013, 11:54 AM

without going into the politics of it, it now seems like South Korea is not the only Korea studying a lunar mission:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=2966.msg1008901#msg1008901

Posted by: TheAnt Feb 8 2013, 05:01 PM

That plan you linked do fit with some facts that are known, which is that DPRK are hard at work to construct a larger launcher with the claimed capability to send satellites to geostationary orbit.



Posted by: Paolo Nov 14 2013, 05:26 PM

A short article and an amazing animation on the subject
http://www.nature.com/news/south-korea-reveals-moon-lander-plans-1.14159

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