Advances in space exploration and rocket science are making space travel a reality that humans could only imagine in the past. While private space travel is becoming increasingly commercialised, Korea is also working hard to develop its own rocket. The time when space is no longer a dream, but a reality, is just around the corner.

Outer space, beyond the horizon!

The human imagination of space dates back to ancient times. Thousands of years ago, people looked up at the night sky and saw the stars and planets in the distance as the realm of the gods. Back then, space was a place of mystery and awe, and humans could only gaze at it from afar. But as science and technology advanced, we realised our dreams of flying, and the universe is no longer out of reach.
‘Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars.’ A line from a famous pop song is known for its soft melody and romantic atmosphere. However, in some ways, it’s not just a romantic song, but a call to action for advances in aerospace engineering: ‘Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars,’ where both reaching the moon (rocket launch) and playing among the stars (spacewalk) are made possible by aerospace engineering. In other words, the song, written in 1954, is a call to action for the 1965 spacewalk and the 1969 human arrival on the moon.
Believe it or not, the idea of humans travelling in space was once considered unrealistic and the stuff of romantic songs, but this fantasy has now been turned on its head, as satellites and spacecraft allow us to do things in space that were once thought impossible, such as exploring satellites, travelling to other planets, and even developing artificial planets. And space launch vehicles are at the centre of this change.
The same goes for satellites and spacecraft. Even if you can do various activities in space, you still need to get to space. But space is very far away from human perspective, so you need launch vehicles to launch satellites and spacecraft into space. And the discipline that deals with these launch vehicles is space engineering, especially rocket engineering.

Rocket science and the journey to space

Rocket science is literally the study of rockets. Unlike aeroplanes, which typically burn fuel to fly, rockets are designed to fly in the absence of oxygen by preparing oxygen and fuel together inside a gas chamber. The principle of how these rockets fly is basically based on Newton’s third law, or the law of action and reaction.
Action and reaction is the principle that when two objects interact with each other, as much as A affects B, B also affects A. This is how rockets work. This principle applies to rockets. A rocket pushes gases from burning fuel backwards, and that force pushes the rocket forwards. It’s a simple principle now, but there was a time when it was misunderstood that rockets couldn’t fly in a vacuum.
It’s this principle of action and reaction that propels rockets into space. Rocket engineering requires a wide range of scientific knowledge, including fluid dynamics to design the fuselage to reduce the friction the rocket has with the air, solid mechanics to calculate the pressures and stresses on the rocket, thermodynamics to design the engine, and kinematics to predict speed changes over time.

How rocket science impacts everyday life

Rocket science may seem like a complex and challenging discipline, but its outputs have had a profound impact on our daily lives. For example, the integrated circuits (ICs) in almost all of our electronics started out as a technique developed to reduce the weight of rockets. Also, GPS, which provides location information, MRIs, which are used in medical exams, and shape memory alloys, which are used in eyeglass frames, were created thanks to advances in rocket science.
So many of the technologies we use today are closely linked to advances in rocket science. Despite this, rocket science itself has often been seen as a field familiar only to astronauts and rocket engineers. But that’s changing. The era of civilian space travel is dawning.

Private space travel and the future

Rocket science used to be centred around large-scale national space programmes, but recently private companies have been entering the space industry, particularly in the US. Companies like SpaceX and Boeing are developing rockets for private space travel, and as a result, we may soon be able to travel to space at a lower cost.
For example, the US company Space Adventures is already offering civilian trips to the International Space Station (ISS). It costs a hefty $20 billion, but what was once unimaginable has become a reality, and we’re likely to see more of this movement in the future.

Rocket engineering in Korea

Amidst the trend of space engineering led by the US and Russia, Korea is also focusing on rocket development. Recently, Korea successfully developed and launched a two-stage rocket with its own technology with the launch of Naro, and also launched its first astronaut. Although the development of the first stage rocket is not yet complete, it is gradually improving through steady research and investment.
The day is not far off when the lyrics ‘Take me to the moon, and let me play among the stars’ will become a reality. In the future, space travel may become as commonplace as air travel, but for that to happen, Korea needs to continue to invest in developing its own rockets.