--- 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 Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## 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"}}] ```