South Korea has launched a lunar satellite, Danuri (Korean for “enjoy the moon”) which is intended to scan the lunar surface at the poles, particularly the south pole, on a year-long mission to search for possible future landing sites for unmanned and even manned missions.
NASA favors the south pole for future astronaut outposts because of evidence of frozen water.
South Korea plans to send a robotic probe to the moon’s surface by 2030.