KOREA INSTITUTE OF GEOSCIENCE AND MINERAL RESOURCES

Space Resources Week 2023 in Luxembourg

Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources(KIGAM, a President Dr. Pyeong-Koo Lee) was invited to attend the fifth edition of Space Resources Week held in Luxembourg between April 19 and 21, 2023. Space Resources Week 2023 took place as a 3-day hybrid conference connecting thought leaders from space agencies, research institutes, start-ups and industry related to space and Terrestrial. The event was organized by European Space Resources Innovation Centre(ESRIC)* together with Luxembourg Space Agency(LSA)*, European Space Agency(ESA)* and Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology (LIST)*, and speakers from key institutions took the stage including KIGAM as one of the key representatives.

*ESRIC: a European center of excellence for scientific, technical, commercial and economic aspects related to the exploitation of space resources, funded and supported by LSA & ESA and managed and hosted by LIST.

*LSA: a national space agency of Luxembourg founded in 2018.

*ESA: a European intergovernmental organization of 22 member states dedicated to the exploration of space.

*LIST: a mission-driven Research and Technology Organization(RTO) of Luxembourg that develops competitive and market-oriented product/service prototypes for public and private stakeholders.

Dr. Kyeong Ja Kim, a Head of Space Resources Exploration and Utilization Center at KIGAM, gave a presentation about the results of major scientific analysis of data collected by KPLP Gamma Rat Spectrometer(KGRS) of Danuri* which is currently orbiting the moon stably. Especially, the results of ▷observation of GRB221009A* through deep space observation, ▷monitoring of solar activity radius and ▷gamma ray measurement data for mapping the lunar resources elements were presented. It was a marvelous chance to show off Korea's capabilities int field of space resources exploration to the world.

*Danuri: the official name of the first lunar orbiter of Korea, the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter(KPLO), launched on August 5, 2022.

*GRB221009A: an unusually bright and long-lasting gamma-ray burst(GRB) discovered on October 9, 2022.

After the welcome remarks of Space Resources Week 2023, KIGAM signed a Memorandum of Understanding(hereinafter referred to as "MOU") with ESRIC during the conference. The MOU was built on the exchanges during Luxembourg's economic mission to Korea at the end of 2022. Dr. Thomas Kallstenius, a Chief Executive Officer of LIST, pledged strategic cooperation with KIGAM on research about lunar resource extraction, future landing site selection, lunar regolith simulant, and so on. Furthermore, detailed cooperation plans, such as developing lunar regolith simulant by KIGAM and extracting oxygen from developed simulant by ESRIC, were mentioned.

Meanwhile, on April 17, 2022, there was a meeting between KIGAM and National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA)* to discuss how to promote reliable and continuous joint research related to the development of resource plants and resource payload for utilizing space resources. The meeting was attended by Dr. Pyeong-Koo Lee and Dr. Gerald Sanders, a Lead of In-Situ Resources Utilization(ISRU) at Johnson Space Center(JSC) of NASA.

*NASA: an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research and space research.

The visit to Luxembourg this time was meaningful in terms of expecting to take the lead in the field of the moon exploration and Artemis Program* through cooperation with LSA and ESRIC. Also, in addition to the existing cooperation between KIGAM and NASA so far, strategic research cooperation with other major space powers such as Luxembourg will help KIGAM to go further in the field of space resources technologies.

*Artemis Program: a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by NASA along with ESA, JAXA and CSA. It is a collaboration of various countries including the Republic of Korea.

Dr. Pyeong-Koo Lee emphasized that "The most important thing to do for us now is to develop resources in space beyond on the earth for our future generation." Additionally, he said that "KIGAM will do the best we can to make Korea a resource-rich country in space until 2050 through enhancing and improving KIGAM's calibre in relation to space resources development."