South Korea's 15 state research institutes have launched preparations for lunar exploration.
 
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said on Tuesday that the institutes have signed a deal to conduct joint research and development on technologies related to lunar studies.
 
Under the agreement, the institutes will use their own budgets from next year to develop technologies for the lunar research program. Combined the budgets total seven-point-75 billion won.
 
The institutes include the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Korea Institute of Science and Technology and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute.
 
The joint research projects include developing a lunar probe.