from the new Russian Cosmodrome Vostochny, which is located near the town of Tsiolkovsky in the far east of the country and about 100 km from the border with China. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket took off on the night of Thursday to Friday and carried out the Luna 25 mission probe without any problems. This is the first Russian mission to the Moon since 1976 (the Soviet Luna 24 mission).
Luna 25 flies to the moon. It will search for water on the moon
The Russian probe is already heading towards the Silver Globe and should reach the orbit of this object in about 5 days. After that, Luna 25 will spend a week at an altitude of about 100 above the surface of the Moon, and on August 23 it is scheduled to land there. The Russian mission is not equipped with a rover that could freely explore the surface of our natural satellite. The main purpose of Roskosmos will be to study the chemical composition of the lunar regolith at the landing site for traces of water in it. The side mission of the lander will be to search for and analyze the dust contained in the very thin lunar atmosphere.
Luna 25 was initially supposed to launch in 2012, but the launch was postponed many times (including 2014, 2016, 2018). In April 2022, Vladimir Putin personally declared that the probe would reach the moon in a maximum of six months. Only a day later, in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, cooperation on the mission was terminated by the European Space Agency, which was supposed to help the Russians prepare cameras and the probe’s navigation system. The imminent start of the Luna 25 mission, announced by the Russian president, finally did not take place.
India is already in the orbit of the moon. Almost simultaneous landing
The country – which has big ambitions to become one of the space powers – sent its probe to the Silver Globe on July 14. Currently, consisting of a propulsion module, the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover, the spacecraft is orbiting the Moon, performing research and preparing to descend to the lunar surface.
India plans to land on the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite on August 23, which is the same day as the Russians. Moreover, both countries want to stay near the south pole of the moon. According to the findings of scientists from NASA, there may be frozen water in some places on the moon, and the poles are the regions where this probability is greatest. As a representative of Roskosmos said this week, there is no risk of a collision between the two landers, because the missions of Russia and India have other landing sites planned, and there is “enough space for everyone” on the moon.
So far, only three countries have successfully sent their rovers or landers to the surface of the Silver Globe – the USA (the only ones that also sent astronauts), the Soviet Union and China. If India’s mission succeeds, it will be the fourth country to do so. The hardest part of the mission is landing. Your landers and
Source: Gazeta
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