Russia successfully launched Luna 25, the nation’s first lunar lander in 47 years.
The unmanned spacecraft took launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Amur Oblast. At 7:10 p.m. ET on Thursday, Luna 25 launched into space on a Soyuz-2 Fregat rocket at 8:10 a.m. local time on Friday.
According to Reuters, there is a “one in a million chance” that one of Luna 25’s rocket stages may land there, thus residents of a Russian village were temporarily evacuated on Friday morning.
The spacecraft is anticipated to first enter an orbit around Earth before changing to a lunar orbit and eventually dropping to the moon’s surface. On August 18, 1976, Luna 24, Russia‘s final lunar lander, touched down there.
According to Reuters, there is a race to see which nation will arrive first when India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission and Luna 25 both intend to touch down at the lunar south pole on August 23. However, Roscomos stated that because their exact landing zones differ, it is not anticipated that the two missions will interfere with one another, according to Reuters.
For one year, Luna 25, also known as the Luna-Glob-Lander, will investigate the elements that make up the lunar polar soil as well as the plasma and particles that make up the moon’s meagre atmosphere.
According to NASA, the four-legged lander is equipped with landing rockets, fuel tanks, solar panels, computers, a robotic arm with a scoop to gather lunar samples, as well as a variety of equipment to analyse the samples and the exosphere.
Initially, Luna 25, Luna 26, Luna 27, and the ExoMars rover were all going to be jointly developed by Roscosmos and the European Space Agency.
But after Russia invaded Ukraine in April 2022, this collaboration came to an end, and the ESA Council decided to “discontinue cooperative activities with Russia.”
Chandrayaan-3, which launched on July 14 and entered lunar orbit over the weekend, consists of a lander, rover, and propulsion module.
India’s effort to make a landing at the lunar south pole follows Chandrayaan-2’s moon crash in September 2019. If the new mission is successful, India would become just the fourth nation, after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China, to accomplish the challenging accomplishment. Chandrayaan-3 will spend a few weeks on the moon’s surface performing a number of scientific investigations to find out more about the moon’s makeup.
In late 2025, during the Artemis III mission, NASA intends to place a woman and a person of colour on the moon for the first time at the lunar south pole.
Due to its prospective riches, this region of the moon has been the subject of numerous missions. A crucial factor to take into account as organisations like NASA look to stably study the moon for extended lengths of time in the future is the possibility that deep, permanently shadowed craters in the lunar south pole contain ice that might be utilised for fuel, oxygen, and drinking water.
“We’re going to see several spacecraft, some perhaps from other nations, that are going to be landing on the south pole in the near future,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a news conference on Tuesday. “There is a resurgence of interest in the moon, which is naturally due to the possibility of water. To prepare for a trip to Mars and a safe return, we’re travelling back to Earth to study how to survive in a deep space environment for extended periods of time.
Nelson responded, “We wish them well,” when questioned about the forthcoming Luna 25 launch, stating that NASA and its Russian counterpart had been working together since 1975, going back to the Soviet era.