Amir Deylami, associate center director at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, welcomes Jang Woo Lee, mayor of Daejeon Metropolitan City, Republic of Korea, during a visit to the center on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023.
The mayor is touring the U.S. with a group of South Korean business and academic leaders to learn best practices for starting a space industry cluster in his city, which is home to the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and KAIST, the leading technical university in South Korea. The Republic of Korea is planning a lunar landing mission in 2032 and a mission to Mars in 2045, and Daejeon hopes to play a major role in those plans.
“Ames has enjoyed a strong relationship with South Korea, including KARI and KAIST,” said Deylami, “and many of our researchers are from South Korea, or have family ties there. This visit further strengthens that strong relationship, and we are looking forward to continuing our work together, particularly through Advanced Air Mobility and other space endeavors.”
The visit also reaffirms South Korea’s participation in the Artemis Accords and the recent agreement between NASA and KARI in support of South Korea’s first lunar mission. The mission involved the launch of their lunar orbiter, Danuri, also known as the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter in August of last year.
Mayor Lee’s entourage toured the Airspace Operations Laboratory at Ames to hear about NASA’s research in Advanced Air Mobility.
NASA recently signed a collaborative arrangement with KARI to conduct research in Advanced Air Mobility, which envisions the use of electric and autonomously flown air taxis in urban environments to relieve traffic congestion, reduce pollution, and deliver cargo to various locations with radically new types of aircraft. Ames is testing the air traffic management system that will be needed for these vehicles to fly safely.
KAIST alumnus and Ames senior robotics systems engineer Dr. In Won Park also provided the mayor and the delegation a tour of the Astrobee laboratories, where they learned about small satellite research and their real-world applications.
Photo credit: NASA/Donald B. Richey
Author: Darryl Waller, NASA’s Ames Research Center