“We will review the feasibility of the Apophis asteroid approaching Earth in 2029 and establish an exploration plan.”
This is the content that President Moon Jae-in directly announced at the ‘Korea Space Strategy Report’ on March 25, last year. When first discovered, Apophis, known as the ‘god of destruction’ because of the high risk of colliding with the Earth, was finally confirmed to pass by a distance of 31,000 km from the Earth without the risk of collision. Since then, Apophis has become the ‘asteroid of opportunity’ in academia. Even if you don’t send a probe far away in space, you can get one step closer to the mystery of the universe if you just ‘pick up’ the asteroid that will come to us as if passing by the Earth.
The scientific community cheered President Moon’s decision because it was a perfect opportunity for Korea, which dreams of becoming a space powerhouse. There was a lot of anticipation that Korea might finally jump into the field of asteroid exploration, which was the domain of advanced space countries such as the United States and Japan. In deep space exploration, so-called ‘Rendezvous’ technology such as docking between spacecraft is essential. There are also observations that if such technology is secured through this exploration, Korea will be able to rise to the ranks of advanced space nations.
But hopes faded following a year. The government, which boldly announced that it would launch the Apophis expedition to the people, did not invest in it. In order to launch the probe in 2027, research should start next year at the latest, but the research and development project for the probe was excluded from the preliminary feasibility study and the budget was not secured.
In the meantime, the United States has given a new mission, Apophis exploration, to the Osiris Rex probe, which is returning to Earth following meeting the asteroid ‘Benu’ and collecting samples. To this end, the Osiris Rex mission will be extended for 18 months and an additional budget of 200 million dollars (regarding 250 billion won) will be invested.
Scientists complained regarding this situation, saying, “If you are involved in science and technology, you can only think of us as a group that is being used by politicians and policy experts.”
I hope you don’t forget that the opportunity to explore the asteroid that we now use only politically and let go of it has come for the first time in 20,000 years.
[벤처과학부 = 이새봄 기자 cestbon@mk.co.kr]
[ⓒ 매일경제 & mk.co.kr, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
