South Korea Targets Moon Landing by 2030

South Korea has unveiled a long-term technology strategy aimed at reducing its dependence on semiconductors and artificial intelligence by investing in a broad range of future industries, including nuclear energy, quantum computing, biotechnology, space and critical minerals.

One of the plan's headline goals is to land a domestically developed spacecraft on the Moon by 2030, followed by a second lunar mission in 2032. The government also aims to establish an independent low-Earth orbit satellite communications network by 2035.

In the energy sector, Seoul plans to commercialize homegrown small modular reactors by 2035 and hopes to generate electricity using nuclear fusion by the late 2030s.

The strategy also calls for a domestically developed 100-qubit quantum processor with error correction by 2029, alongside investments in solar power, wind energy, hydrogen production, brain-computer interfaces and advanced biotechnology.

To strengthen supply-chain resilience, South Korea plans to expand the processing and recycling of critical minerals, diversify imports and invest the equivalent of about $7bn in advanced materials, components, and manufacturing technologies by 2030.

(Reuters, bak)