Fuel-Saving Danuri to Extend Mission by 2 More Years

O Tae-seok, 1st Vice Minister of Science and ICT, Announces on the 7th

The official operation period of Danuri, South Korea's first lunar exploration orbiter that began its one-year mission this February, is expected to be extended by two more years.

On the morning of the 7th, Oh Tae-seok, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, met with reporters at the Sejong City government office and stated, "Considering the fuel consumption so far and the remaining fuel amount, we believe the mission can be carried out until 2025." The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to officially decide on the mission extension by holding the 'Lunar Exploration Project Promotion Committee' within this month. According to Vice Minister Oh, Danuri, launched in August last year, consumes 26 to 30 kg of fuel annually, and as of October last year, 86 kg of fuel remained. Although a considerable amount was consumed during the lunar orbit insertion process, more fuel remains than expected. Accordingly, the Ministry expects to be able to operate Danuri's main body and software until 2025.

Vice Minister Oh also introduced that international scientific diplomatic cooperation with the United States, Japan, and the European Union (EU) has recently been strengthened. They are currently in the main negotiation phase to join the EU's international research cooperation project, 'Horizon Europe,' and are discussing cooperation plans with Japan through meetings at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology at the director-general level. In particular, following President Yoon Suk-yeol's visit to the U.S. in April, an agreement was reached to ease the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), opening the way to equip Korean launch vehicles with advanced U.S.-made components and carry satellites. They are currently exploring concrete implementation plans.

Regarding the next-generation launch vehicle project, the follow-up to the Nuriho project, the head of the project will be appointed by July, and the system integration company announcement will be made in August, with a company selection planned for October. Concerning the medium-ion accelerator 'RAON,' which successfully completed low-energy section commissioning at the end of last month, Vice Minister Oh stated, "Preliminary research for developing a high-energy accelerator device is underway," adding, "We are verifying the performance of prototype accelerator tubes to be used in the front and rear sections, and once the performance is validated, we plan to proceed with production process optimization and further development."

Vice Minister Oh also mentioned that they are seeking solutions to structural problems in government-funded research institutes. He said, "It is realistically difficult to address all issues such as research activities, personnel, and convergence problems, as well as structural problems, but we are gathering and specifying tasks to be resolved quickly," adding, "We are at the stage of discussing items that will drive change, not just declarative statements."