--- title: The U.S. Has Long Studied the Moon. Now South Korea Joins In description: South Korea prepares to launch its first moon probe, while the U.S. finds a place to live in a lunar cave. canonical: https://time.com/6202173/south-korea-nasa-moon-lunar-probe/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-07-29T20:41:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:37.575Z article:section: Science og:title: The U.S. Has Long Studied the Moon. Now South Korea Joins In og:description: South Korea set to launch its first lunar probe while the U.S. finds a possible future home for lunar astronauts og:url: https://time.com/6202173/south-korea-nasa-moon-lunar-probe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd41cbc9d23b5f9f/698a343acabb1d149ee5087d/TheMoon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5794 og:image:height: 3259 og:image:alt: Large red moon rising og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The U.S. Has Long Studied the Moon. Now South Korea Joins In twitter:description: South Korea set to launch its first lunar probe while the U.S. finds a possible future home for lunar astronauts twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd41cbc9d23b5f9f/698a343acabb1d149ee5087d/TheMoon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # South Korea's Lunar Probe Will Soon Join the U.S. in Studying the Moon's Many Scientific Mysteries > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. 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Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=b1d8032b-fb84-4d4b-a572-b5a2e4100caa&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Russia to Drop Out of International Space Station After 2024 [Watch (HLS stream): Russia to Drop Out of International Space Station After 2024](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VSY3AZDx.m3u8) (0:44)  _Published 2022-07-26. Yuri Borisov, Head of Roscosmos, and Vladimir Putin announce Russia's intent to withdraw from the International Space Station, and construct a new independent orbiter._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jul 29, 2022 8:41 PM UTC  Getty Images/500;PETER@GRAVESEN.EMAIL <<<<<<<@@RP  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jul 29, 2022 8:41 PM UTC The lunar club is an elite one. Since the dawn of the space age, only the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, India, Israel, and the European Space Agency have sent spacecraft to land on or orbit the moon. On August 2, [as _Nature_ reports](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02066-3), that rarefied group will add a new member, when South Korea’s Danuri (which means “enjoy the moon”) probe is launched from the Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Danuri will make a long, looping moonward journey, settling into lunar orbit by mid-December. The 678 kg (1,495 lb) probe is relatively small as these things go, but it’s packed with five scientific instruments. Among the ones researchers are most excited about is the PolCam, which will study the moon’s surface in polarized light, analyzing the density of its grains of dust. This will help explain so-called “fairy castle” structures, mini-towers of dust that could not form on Earth because the greater gravity of our planet would pull them to the ground. Also on board are the ShadowCam—which will study permanently shadowed regions of the moon that may harbor water ice—and a magnetometer, that will help explain how so small a body as the moon once had a core large and dynamic enough to generate a magnetic field. But South Korea is not the only country making moon news this week. So too is the U.S., and its venerable Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which launched in 2009 and has been orbiting the moon ever since. There are a lot of obstacles facing future astronauts who would live at the permanent lunar bases NASA hopes to build. For starters, there’s the constant bombardment of cosmic rays, solar radiation, and micrometeorites. Then too there is the temperature, which ranges from a blistering 127º C (260º F) during the lunar day to a frigid -173º C (-260º F) at night. But there’s an answer: caves. --- ### More from TIME --- Not long after the LRO arrived at the moon, it discovered pits in the lunar surface that looked like they lead to lava tubes—now-empty cave-like channels through which lava used to run. Building lunar habitats within the caves would offer natural protection from the micrometeorite, cosmic ray, and solar radiation problems. But there’s still the temperature to reckon with—or there was. As [NASA reports this week](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/lro-lunar-pits-comfortable), a new study conducted by the LRO, using an on-board thermal camera, analyzed a football field sized pit in the Sea of Tranquility and used computer modeling to examine the thermal properties of the cave the pit might lead to. The result: if the cave indeed exists, it would maintain a steady and survivable temperature of 17º C (63º F) through both the lunar day and lunar night. If NASA is looking for a promising piece of property on which to build its first lunar home, LRO might just have found it. _This story originally appeared in TIME Space, our weekly newsletter covering all things space._ [_You can sign up here._](https://time.com/newsletters/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6202173/south-korea-nasa-moon-lunar-probe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6202173/south-korea-nasa-moon-lunar-probe/"},"headline":"South Korea's Lunar Probe Will Soon Join the U.S. in Studying the Moon's Many Scientific Mysteries","datePublished":"2022-07-29T20:41:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:51:37.575Z","description":"South Korea aims to launch its first moon probe while the U.S. finds a cave that could be a home for astronauts","url":"https://time.com/6202173/south-korea-nasa-moon-lunar-probe/","keywords":["Space","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd41cbc9d23b5f9f/698a343acabb1d149ee5087d/TheMoon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd41cbc9d23b5f9f/698a343acabb1d149ee5087d/TheMoon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Large red moon rising","caption":"Large red moon rising","creditText":"Getty Images/500;PETER@GRAVESEN.EMAIL <<<<<<<@@RP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6202173/south-korea-nasa-moon-lunar-probe/","name":"South Korea's Lunar Probe Will Soon Join the U.S. in Studying the Moon's Many Scientific Mysteries"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Russia to Drop Out of International Space Station After 2024","description":"Yuri Borisov, Head of Roscosmos, and Vladimir Putin announce Russia's intent to withdraw from the International Space Station, and construct a new independent orbiter.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/VSY3AZDx/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2022-07-26T18:48:59.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VSY3AZDx.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6202173/south-korea-nasa-moon-lunar-probe/","duration":"PT44S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6202173/south-korea-nasa-moon-lunar-probe/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```