South Korea has just signed the Artemis Accords, which govern the fundamental principles to which NASA and its partners will have to comply on and around the Moon. This signature comes as the country wants to send a lander to our satellite before 2030.
You will have noticed that NASA wants to return humans to the Moon as early as 2024 as part of its Artemis program. The American agency, which wishes to establish itself permanently at the level of the South Pole, is aware that such an ambition can only be sustained by international collaboration insofar as, in a few years, several actors will share the lunar scene.
That's why, last year, agency officials developed the Artemis Accords, which list the " rules of good conduct " to which NASA and its partners will have to comply within the framework of this lunar exploration. These agreements aim to create " a secure and transparent environment that facilitates exploration, science and commercial activities that all of humanity can benefit from" , could we read in description.
So far the US (naturally), Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, UK, Emirates Arab States and Ukraine had all already signed these agreements. South Korea is now added to this list. The country's Minister of Science and ICT, Lim Hyesook, signed the document at a ceremony in Seoul on May 24.
“ I am delighted that the Republic of Korea has committed to the Artemis Accords. Their signature demonstrates the strong global momentum for our approach to exploring from the moon to Mars ” , NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. South Korea is also the first country to sign under President Biden's administration.
The signing of these agreements comes as South Korea prepares to launch the first in its lunar exploration program. The country is currently developing an orbiter – Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) – slated for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as early as 2022. The spacecraft will carry a five-meter resolution camera, a wide-field polarized camera, a magnetic field sensor and a gamma ray sensor, all developed by South Korea.
Another payload, provided by NASA, will take care of analyzing the reflectance of permanently shadowed lunar regions in order to map possible deposits of water ice.
Even more ambitious, last March South Korean President Moon Jae-in also announced the development of a lander aimed at landing on the Moon by 2030 To do this, the country is also working on its own launch vehicle – the Korea Space Launch Vehicle, or Nuri – whose first flight is currently scheduled for next October.
