South Korea will finalize the landing site for its lunar lander — a project with a total budget of 530.3 billion won ($383 million) — by the end of this year.
The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) held a public hearing on Sunday at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources to discuss candidate landing regions for the lunar lander mission scheduled for 2032.
KASA is pursuing a mid- to long-term lunar exploration program based on the "Republic of Korea Space Science Exploration Roadmap," aimed at establishing a lunar economic base by the 2040s. The program consists of three phases: the first phase to secure baseline data on the lunar surface and resource exploration; the second phase for geological structure analysis and resource exploration in the polar regions; and the third phase to conduct long-term observation, utilize in-situ resources and build a lunar economic base.
The 2032 lunar lander mission objectives include understanding lunar surface dust, space environment characteristics and their interactions; exploring the chemical composition and resources of the lunar surface; and analyzing lunar terrain and geology. The landing site latitude range has been set between 40° and 70°, a zone that allows more than 10 days of surface mission operations and facilitates lander operations and scientific exploration by onboard instruments.
Among high-value candidate sites, those in the northern hemisphere include the Gartner crater (59.24°N), the Endymion crater (53.61°N) and Lacus Mortis (45.13°N). In the southern hemisphere, the Clavius crater (58.62°S), the Pingré crater (58.64°S) and the Maginus crater (50.03°S) have been shortlisted. KASA has selected approximately 30 candidate regions in total and plans to narrow them down to the sites with the highest scientific value by the end of this year through further review.
"This public hearing is a critical step in determining the lander design and observation sites for the 2032 lunar lander mission," KASA Administrator Oh Tae-seok said. "We will continue to listen to diverse opinions from relevant experts so that Korea can fully advance its lunar exploration technology and scientific research."