KASI to join NASA’s PRIMA far-infrared telescope mission

South Korea’s Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, or KASI, is set to become an international partner in NASA’s development and science program for PRIMA, a next-generation far-infrared space telescope, Biz Chosun reported.

The mission is being designed for launch in 2033. KASI researchers will contribute to testing the telescope’s scientific instruments, calibrating its data, analysing observations and carrying out joint research. The participation expands South Korean involvement in NASA space-telescope projects beyond the institute’s existing work on SPHEREx, another infrared mission.

A telescope for obscured regions of space

PRIMA will be equipped with a 1.8-metre primary mirror, a far-infrared spectrograph and an imaging instrument. Together, these tools are intended to examine astronomical environments that cannot be fully understood through visible-light or near-infrared observations alone.

Far-infrared observations are particularly useful for studying cold material and objects hidden by dust. PRIMA’s scientific programme will focus on several major questions in astronomy, including how galaxies change chemically, how supermassive black holes grow, and how stars and planetary systems come into existence.

The telescope will also provide information about regions where stars are forming and about the material between stars. Its observations are expected to help researchers investigate the conditions from which planetary systems develop, including the behaviour of water and dust in the disks surrounding young stars.

NASA plans to operate PRIMA for five years after launch. The mission has been chosen as the first project in a newly established category of space-science programmes known as Probe-class missions.

A middle-sized NASA mission

Probe-class projects occupy a position between NASA’s largest strategic missions, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, and small or medium-sized space missions. The category has a budget ceiling of $1.2 billion, equivalent to about 1.6 trillion won.

That structure is intended to support a mission with more capability than a smaller spacecraft while remaining below the scale and cost of NASA’s flagship observatories. PRIMA’s selection therefore marks the start of a new class of NASA space-science project, with its far-infrared focus aimed at areas of the universe that other wavelengths cannot reveal as clearly.

KASI’s role will include work on the telescope’s payload, the collection of instruments responsible for making observations. Researchers will help verify that those instruments perform as intended and will take part in the calibration needed to turn their measurements into reliable scientific data.

The institute plans to adapt expertise developed through its participation in SPHEREx. That experience includes cryogenic testing and spectroscopic calibration—the processes used to assess instruments operating at very low temperatures and to check their ability to measure light across different wavelengths.

Linking SPHEREx and PRIMA data

KASI intends to improve the cryogenic test equipment previously used for SPHEREx spectroscopic calibration. The upgraded facilities will support calibration and performance checks for PRIMA’s spectroscopic payload.

The institute’s contribution will continue after the technical preparation. KASI researchers plan to combine SPHEREx’s all-sky near-infrared spectroscopic observations with PRIMA’s far-infrared measurements. Comparing the two data sets should allow them to investigate star-forming areas and the properties of interstellar matter from complementary perspectives.

The joint studies will also examine how water and dust emerge and change inside protoplanetary disks. Other targets include galaxies undergoing vigorous star formation and active galactic nuclei, the bright central regions of some galaxies associated with growing supermassive black holes.

Park Jang-hyeon, KASI’s president, said the partnership would build the institute’s capabilities in both space-telescope research and development while helping create a foundation for leading future telescope missions. O Tae-seok, head of the Korea AeroSpace Administration, said the agreement broadens cooperation with NASA in space telescopes and will support South Korean researchers’ space-science work and international collaboration.