and authorities here have just confirmed officially that is the success of the hanoi
mission well that is the launch now up next we turn to a scholar in the field for her thoughts
on south korea's first step that is to its lunar expedition i have dr michel hanlon at the center
for air and space law at the university of mississippi joining us live on the line dr
hanlon it's a pleasure to have you back thank you so much for having me back it's a pleasure
to be here especially on such an auspicious day thank you so much for your kind words dr hanlon
let's begin with a few words on the significance of south korea's first mission to the moon this
is an incredible incredible achievement um as as the reporter noted um that south korea will only
be the seventh nation to actually orbit the moon you know it joins china japan the eu india russia
and the united states in that feat of course we did have also um an israeli mission that crash
landed on the moon um but that that is uh that is not going to happen in this case um coupled
with the recent successful launch of nuri south korea continues to prove that it has homegrown
talent to harness the resources of space to build its economy and better the lives of south koreans
and of all humanity i think just listening to your reporter explain the trajectories and the physics
you know i'm just a i'm just a lawyer but i think the understanding and being able to figure out
the algorithms and all of the the propulsion and the fuel and the angles and create such a complex
mission is just such an incredible achievement and i applaud south korea and the korean space agency
right again i thank you for your kind words dr helen the unmanned spacecraft was launched about
six hours ago from florida and we'll begin to orbit the moon as my colleagues hyung and
changshaf said in december could you perhaps tell us a little bit more about south korea's planned
probe absolutely so it is going to take about four months to get there
and uh and the reason of course was explained beautifully um because of the we're going to save
that propulsion so we can actually spend an entire year circling the moon it's carrying six payloads
and this is really exciting too because five of those payloads were actually created and developed
by korean universities and researchers so not only do you have indige indigenous talent building
the satellite the the bus to get you there all of these instruments are also being created uh within
south korea so you have i wrote them down a lunar terrain imager a wide angle polarimetric
camera a magnetometer a gamma ray spectrometer a disruption tolerant network experimental payload
and the the last payload was developed by nasa and it's a highly sensitive camera called shadowcam so
again you know this is the incredible faith that um that people have that nasa has in south korea
technology to include this very very sensitive brand new highly uh precise camera on the on
the south korean bus with these instruments what's really exciting is that you're going to
be able to explore the terrain much more closely than we ever have before the pictures are going
to be very clear we're going to be looking for water which is important to sustain life when we
build communities on the moon and also to act as propulsion for when we use the moon to go beyond
the moon to explore further into deep space and we're going to be looking for helium-3 which we
believe is highly prevalent all around the moon and which we think we can use to harness um to
use as fuel and and for and bring it back down to earth to do that um of course we also are testing
an internet system uh wireless internet and i love that the first thing that they're going
to broadcast is bts's dynamite song and that one line because i am in the stars tonight how fitting
um and finally the the the that shadow cam is going to do a first it's going to be able to take
pictures in these very dark very cold craters in the permanently shadowed areas of the moon
where we think there's a lot of water so with all of these kind of um technical measurements with
understanding this mapping we're going to be able to find where these resources that we need are
and we're going to be able to figure out where the best place to land to actually
reach them is going to be right and speaking about landing perfect dr hanlon south korea hopes to
achieve a robotic landing on the moon within the next decade and of course an asteroid
sample return mission as well what are the broader implications perhaps of these upcoming missions
they're incredible so again these are in this is indigenous technology this is south
korea developing this all on its own it's a bright shining example that space is not
just for big superpowers right space is for everyone and when nations like south korea
are able to develop these space capabilities they are acting like a superpower we're going to turn
this geopolitics on its head being able to access the resources of space in an
equal way on an equal basis is really going to change the calculus and the dynamic of how we
relate to each other here on earth it's going to really upend our interpretation of political
power and economic power i mean this is we can't understate how important this is to be able to
see smaller countries like south korea you know to put their minds to becoming a space power
and harnessing that space economy and harnessing all of the resources of space to better not just
itself and south korea and south korean people but all of humanity and that is really the second
really important takeaway is korea is stepping up to the table and contributing to humanity's future
it's helping all of humanity to help us understand ourselves and help us in our quest to explore the
cosmos and harness again all of the resources that we don't even know exactly what's out there yet
that will benefit all of humanity right dr helen do you believe that interest in space
exploration has been perhaps rising in recent times and if that is the case how do you explain
it so it is absolutely the case more and more people are getting interested um it's because
we're understanding that our resources on earth are limited um we have we have explored all of the
territory on earth perhaps there are some metals and and elements we can use and and mine from our
deep seas but we know that's finite we have to look elsewhere and this isn't abandoning earth
this is going out beyond beyond our borders to find things that will help us and benefit us
here on earth i like to think about earth people think about earth and say you know earth is here
and space is out there but you know what space isn't out there even though we call it outer space
we live in space so it's really by by going into space and understanding what's around
us and beginning to discover what's around us we're really almost looking in our own backyard
you know something that that humanity has been thinking about for centuries right we have always
looked to the stars and now we finally have the capability to do it and so that being able to to
uh discover what's our in our own backyard is so important and it's such a pull but the the
other thing that is really amazing about space is just that endless possibility we have no idea what
we're gonna find there we might find you know things like cures for things like covet where
we might find elements that we've never heard of before that we've never encountered before
that will answer all of our fuel problems you know i don't i'm not suggesting that all our answers
are in space but space can definitely act again as an equalizer it can change our geopolitical
properties down here and it can provide benefits that we can't even think about or know about at
this point in time right and against that backdrop dr hanlon perhaps we could end with a few words
from you to relevant authorities here in south korea as they seek to i know pave a greater path
to space well i'd say keep up the good work you guys have been amazing this year alone
but i will say you know the key to successful and sustainable space exploration is responsibility
and cooperation so i really encourage south korea and the korean space agency to continue to do
what they're already doing and that's to uphold the measures established by the united nations
to support the long-term sustainability of space activities and also collaboration you know the the
information that we receive from um from this mission generally is going
to contribute its knowledge to the artemis program and contribute to the us mission of
putting the next human and the first woman on the moon and so the that collaboration
is so so important and we really have to understand that we as humans will only
succeed in space if we are able to rely upon each other so again keep up the good work and i
really look forward to see the pictures that you guys return all right dr hanel as always thank
you very much for being with us today thank you for your time as well thank you so much