The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced the launch of the KPS Development Business Division to develop ultra-precise location, navigation, and visual information services.
The South Korean government is investing in the development of a new satellite system called KPS. This system is designed to provide accurate location, navigation, and visual information for areas near the Korean Peninsula. It is expected that this system will become a key infrastructure in the future for the space economy era.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced on the 18th that they launched the KPS Development Business Division.
The KPS development project aims to provide ultra-precise location, navigation, and visual information of areas near the Korean Peninsula.
It is expected that it will become a key infrastructure in the space economy era in the future by providing meter- and centimeter-level services that are much more accurate than existing GPS.
With the launch of the dedicated business headquarters, the government plans to invest a total of 3.72345 trillion won from this year to 2035 to develop KPS satellite systems, ground systems and user systems and deploy eight satellites into orbit.
Lee Jong-ho, Minister of Education, who participated in the opening ceremony of the KPS Development Business Division, said, “The KPS development project is the largest space development program ever and an important project to build a national infrastructure essential for the 4th Industrial Revolution.” We will make sure that follow-up measures in the space sector of the Korea-US summit can proceed smoothly.”
Recently, demand for ultra-precise location, navigation, and visual information is also increasing in new industries such as autonomous vehicles and urban air transportation.
Korea has been developing several Earth observation satellites, but this is the first time it has been trying to develop a navigation satellite.
As in the case of Japan's QZSS and China's Beidou, once launched, consumer electronic devices such as iPhones can be easily supported later on their own, which is eventually good for consumers.