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While the country is awash in talks about the general election and its aftermath, another important national matter is underway. Yi So-yeon is currently lodged at the International Space Station, and the first phase of the manufacturing of the Korea Space Launcher Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) is nearing completion in Moscow.
On the day the Russian rocket with Yi aboard was launched, a TV station aired related programs for over 10 hours. The space flight hardly warrants that much attention. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) classified her as not "a space woman" but "a spaceflight participant under a commercial contract." In other words, she is a tourist who is visiting a space station owned by the U.S., Russia, the European Union and Japan. She is a tourist from the 36th country into space, at that.
The experiments Yi is conducting in space being primary, it's not entirely wrong to contend that the government is using W26 billion (US$1=W987) in taxpayers' money for an individual's space tour. What is urgently needed for us at the moment is not a manned space flight but rocket engine technology. Yi's stay in space is not something we've achieved, but a warning that the time has come for South Korea to decide whether we should focus our national strength on going to space or end up imitating others like this.
The KSLV-1 is scheduled to be launched from Oinarodo Space Center in South Jeolla Province at year's end at a cost of over W500 billion. A plan to launch a much heavier spacecraft with a rocket completely manufactured in South Korea about 10 years later is estimated to cost more than W4 trillion. There is no guarantee whatsoever that even with that much spending we will be able to somewhat catch up with the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and the EU.
The term "technology transfer" does not exist in the space industry. Russia is building our rocket together and has sent Yi So-yeon to the space station. While doing this, however, Russia has been extremely security sensitive, lest we might witness even a screw being driven. Replacing Ko San for too minor reasons, a Russian official said, "The space technology we have developed over 50-odd years cannot be subject to a diplomatic compromise." The U.S. is even more strict than Russia. "The world powers will absolutely not permit developing countries to step into the aeronautics and space industry," said a top executive of Hyundai Heavy Industries. No investment in space would be riskier than one under such circumstances.
An investment in a space project is bigger and more uncertain than the proposed Grand Canal Project. Once built, a canal, whether it is economically feasible or not, will remain. A space project, if it fails, could end up simply a money pit. But it is the Grand Canal that has emerged as a national issue, because it has become a political one. Examined from the degree of danger and risk the state must assume, however, whether we should go to space or not indeed requires a national and political determination.
The Bush administration in the U.S. has announced a new space strategy of constructing a permanent base on the moon in 16 years. The lunar base will be a science outpost and a center for technologies needed for future expeditions to Mars. Sixteen years come around fairly soon. The U.S. has asked other countries to participate in the venture; it wants to share the costs. South Korea plans to take part, but without any accompanying technology we will pay money and gain nothing of substance. Deciding whether to participate in the lunar base project or not is really not an easy matter.
Until a short while ago, we were a nation with a tendency for negative decisions on such matters. But world history has become the stage of the Westerners who sailed westward aboard ships unconditionally 500 years ago. If you explore untrodden routes, you may eventually open a new world, though you might well sustain injuries on the way. This experience is inherited in the DNA of the offspring of the world powers.
A calculation of the economic benefits of an investment in the space industry would be important. More fundamental, however, is a proposition that we, too, go out aboard vessels and see if a new world exists beyond our globe. China plans to build a lunar base on its own and Japan dreams of developing a deep space base four times farther than the moon. The world powers are making space their territories, and occupying the time called the future. Space is sometime bound to become a second "new continent" in human history. We must go to the moon this time, even if it means clutching one leg of the U.S.
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