Tamal Kundu
The Balhae Lunar Research Station serves as the primary setting for the first season of ‘The Silent Sea.’ It was established by South Korea’s Space and Aeronautics Administration (SAA). Five years before the current events, 117 researchers and staff members perished. According to the official account, a radiation leak was the cause of the disaster. However, it is later revealed that the researchers at the facility were experimenting with a substance known as lunar water. While it’s harmless by itself, it begins rapidly multiplying when it comes into contact with an organic substance. If even a molecule of it ends up inside a person, they will die by drowning from within. And that’s what really happened to those researchers and staff members.
‘The Silent Sea’ takes place in a dystopic future, but the idea of a lunar facility is neither preposterous nor complete science fiction. If you want to know whether there is indeed a research base called Balhae on the moon, we got you covered.
Does the Balhae Lunar Research Station Really Exist on the Moon?
No, the Balhae Lunar Research Station doesn’t exist on the moon in real life. Moreover, the name of the South Korean space agency isn’t SSA either, but KARI, short for the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. In fact, as of late 2021, no country in the world has a base on the moon. But a few do have plans to establish facilities either in the moon’s orbit or on its surface.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and several commercial organizations are collaborating on setting up a small space station called the Lunar Gateway or just Gateway in the lunar orbit. There are plans to begin construction in the 2020s. When it is done, it will comprise a science laboratory, a communication hub run by solar power, a space for short habitation, and an area designated for lunar rovers and other types of robots. It is believed that the Lunar Gateway will play a crucial role in future space exploration. The agencies involved in the project intend to use it for missions towards the lunar south pole as well as a staging point for NASA’s Mars Transit Vehicle spacecraft concept.
In March 2021, it was announced that the Russian space agency Roscosmos and China’s National Space Administration would work together to set up research facilities either in the Lunar orbit or on the surface, or both. Humanity hasn’t been back to the moon since 1972. With the space race once more heating up, we are bound to see the building of several lunar stations in the next few decades, and one of them just might be of South Korean in origin.
Read More: What Happened to Earth in The Silent Sea?
