South Korea set off for the moon on Thursday. But it doesn’t want to stop there.
"We are also considering using the moon as an outpost for space exploration,” Kwon Hyun-joon, director general of space and nuclear energy at South Korea’s Ministry of Science, said in a written response to questions. "Although we hope to explore the moon itself, we also recognize its potential to act as a base for further deep space exploration such as Mars and beyond.”
South Korea’s lunar spacecraft, named Danuri, was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida, setting out on a roundabout but fuel-efficient path that will have it arriving at the moon in mid-December. There, it will begin an orbit at an altitude of about 100 kilometers above the moon’s surface. The main mission is scheduled to last for one year.
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