Korea AeroSpace Administration has set a mid- to long-term goal of sending a Mars lander using Korea's own technology by 2045. At the same time, it put forward as a core strategy the use of commercial launch and landing services like SpaceX to begin early demonstrations of domestic technologies in the Martian environment starting in the 2030s.
Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) unveiled a space science exploration roadmap and a Mars exploration strategy with these details at a roundtable held in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 16th.
Kang Gyeong-in, head of the space science exploration division at Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), said, "Mars is a representative planet where research on the formation of the solar system and life is possible," and added, "Its rotation period similar to Earth's, atmospheric and geological environments, and the process of atmospheric loss can provide clues to understanding Earth's future," noting, "As major countries such as the United States and China competitively push Mars missions, the importance of getting a head start has grown in terms of science diplomacy and industrial competitiveness."
Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA)'s Mars strategy has two main tracks. One is a long-term goal to send a Mars lander with independent technology by 2045. The other is a plan to move up preparations to avoid missing demonstration opportunities by leveraging international cooperation and commercial services, given that a "launch window" to Mars opens roughly every two years. Because chances to go from Earth to Mars do not come often, the strategy is to load the technologies that are ready first and go verify them.
Kang explained a direction to extend the potential use of Nuri beyond low Earth orbit to the moon and Mars. He said, "If we combine a kick stage (orbital transfer vehicle) with Nuri, which has a payload capacity of about 3.3 tons at an altitude of 300 km, we can inject 40–50 kg to Mars," adding, "For lunar missions, depending on the kick stage design, up to 800 kg could be placed into orbit." A kick stage is a small propulsion module that places payloads such as satellites or probes into their final target orbits.
At the same time, Kang cited SpaceX's Starship as an example and laid out a plan to open a path to first test domestic technologies on the Martian surface by using international cooperation and commercial services. He explained, "There has been communication at the level of confirming payload scale and expense to create a budget guide."
Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) introduced example specifications being used for internal planning as a payload of about 500 kg. Kang said, "At this scale, domestic industry and academia could bundle multiple payloads to gain an opportunity for proactive verification in the Martian environment," adding, "It may be possible to conduct demonstrations at a relatively low expense, and the specific budget is at the planning stage."
In addition, Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) presented tasks for an indigenous Mars lander, including heat shielding and atmospheric entry, soft-landing technologies, Earth–Mars optical communication infrastructure, power generation and storage, equipment to respond to environmental factors such as dust storms, and in-situ resource utilization.
On this day, Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) also released a 20-year space science exploration roadmap that includes not only Mars but also low Earth orbit space manufacturing (space factories), lunar landers, heliophysics observations and space weather, deep-space optical communications, and an international giant radio telescope.
In particular, new projects were presented to link exploration missions to practical industrial or technological capabilities. First, the demonstration project for a small unmanned space manufacturing platform aims not to end with running manufacturing and processes in low Earth orbit, but to verify the entire cycle from deorbit to Earth reentry and recovery. In addition, a new project will be pursued for low Earth orbit technology demonstrations and data use based on scientific exploration.
Also, before main missions such as a lunar lander or surface exploration, a "lunar orbiter project for communications relay demonstration" will be pursued to verify the moon–Earth communications relay capability that determines sustainable exploration. To detect solar activity earlier and strengthen space weather response, a "Korea-led international joint project to build an L4 heliophysics observatory" at the Lagrange point L4 was also presented.
Kang Gyeong-in, head of the institutional sector, said, "We will not finish the space science exploration roadmap after making it once; we will revise it regularly every five years and update it as needed," adding, "We will continue to refine the plan to match the rapidly changing space technology and industrial environment."