Is It Hard to Go to the Moon with Nuri?… Tasks Remaining After Cheers Over 'Fifth Success' [Reporter's Notebook]

Nuri's fifth launch has also been successfully concluded.

[Lee Soon-deok / Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do: It was so wonderful. It was so emotional. I feel like crying.] 

All five cluster satellites, which were the main payloads, communicated smoothly. Except for one cube satellite that failed to deploy, the remaining nine were also sent into space for their space missions. Except for the first launch, which fell slightly short of its final thrust just before the target orbit, Nuri has now succeeded four consecutive times starting from the second launch. So, is it safe to say that our space industry has entered a normal orbit to some extent? While Nuri is certainly an outstanding achievement, many experts evaluate that with Nuri's success, we have now just taken our first step into the space industry.

Let's look at the most famous rocket. SpaceX's Falcon 9 boasts overwhelming indicators of over 600 launches and a 99% mission success rate. Russia's Soyuz rocket has hundreds of launches, and the European Space Agency's Ariane rocket has over 100 launches, both maintaining mission execution rates of over 90%. Nuri is still falling short to card its name alongside them. Then what are Nuri's future plans? With an additional enhancement project for Nuri, it is scheduled to be launched two more times by 2028. Of course, this is not the end. Through subsequent continuous projects, the goal is to launch once a year until 2032. A lunar orbit communication satellite and other missions are planned for 2029, though the project has not yet been finalized.

The problem is that it is difficult to send a satellite to the Moon using Nuri alone. There are various orbits in space to get to the Moon, which can be thought of as a kind of highway. To enter this highway, a vehicle flying at 7.7 to 7.8 kilometers per second in a low Earth orbit at an altitude of 300 kilometers needs to accelerate its speed up to 10.8 to 10.9 kilometers per second. The problem is that acceleration itself is impossible because Nuri's third stage cannot be reignited. Furthermore, with Nuri's current thrust, the payload weight that can be placed into a lunar transfer orbit is a mere 100 kilograms, making it impossible to send a satellite capable of performing missions. Therefore, an orbital transfer vehicle is under development at a cost of some 40 billion won. This orbital transfer vehicle is loaded inside Nuri's fairing along with the satellite, acting like a fourth-stage rocket to help the satellite travel to the Moon. Then why is the period for Nuri's continuous project set until 2032? That is around the time when the next-generation launch vehicle, preparing for Nuri's successor, will be ready. The next-generation launch vehicle is a successor project to Nuri and boasts a 700-ton-class thrust, more than double Nuri's 300-ton-class thrust. While Nuri can carry 3.3 tons based on low Earth orbit as a two-stage rocket advantageous for reuse, the next-generation launch vehicle is expected to carry more than 10 tons. According to current plans, a test launch is scheduled for 2031, with two launches in 2032. The 2032 launches plan to carry a lunar orbiter and a lunar lander into space, respectively, to send payloads to the Moon. The important point is that the baton must be smoothly passed from Nuri to the next-generation launch vehicle. This is because previously, the European Space Agency's Ariane 5 was retired before the launch of its successor, Ariane 6, and as the development and launch of Ariane 6 were delayed, the European Space Agency experienced an unexpected space gap. Securing economic feasibility is also crucial. The next-generation launch vehicle was initially intended to be developed as a rocket using kerosene like Nuri, but the project was changed to a methane-fueled rocket, which is advantageous for reusability. This is because methane, which has fewer carbons in its molecule and produces less soot than kerosene—which generates a lot of soot during combustion—is more advantageous. The Korea AeroSpace Administration projected that if the next-generation launch vehicle is successfully developed as a reusable launch vehicle, launch costs can be lowered to 1/10 of the current Nuri launch cost. Launch vehicle costs depend heavily on how much passengers, or satellites, pay per kilogram; while Nuri currently costs about $24,000 per kilogram, the next-generation launch vehicle can lower it to about $2,500. Economic feasibility is secured not only by carrying more passengers per launch but also by recovering and reusing the first-stage rocket that was previously discarded. In this case, even if the same amount is charged to passengers, higher profits can be left over. Although it is an estimate, SpaceX's Falcon 9 also has a payload cost of around $2,500 per kilogram, though industry experts estimate the actual charge is about $5,000.

Everything explained so far is still just a plan. What I felt while covering Nuri more than five times is that due to its scale and scientific limitations, it is truly not easy for the space industry to be implemented as planned. This 5th launch of Nuri was conducted without delaying the scheduled time even by a single minute for the first time. I hope that our remaining space industry plans, like Nuri's 5th launch, will proceed smoothly.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.