The Luna-25 spacecraft, Russia’s first lunar landing craft in nearly five decades, is set to launch on August 11 from the Vostochny cosmodrome, located in the far east of Moscow. This launch is happening near India’s Chandrayaan 3, which is set to land on the Moon’s south pole just four days later.
The mission, whose launch had been delayed from July to August to ensure the reliability of the project’s implementation, aims to study the composition of the polar regolith and the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere. These studies are incredibly important for future lunar exploration. They will allow scientists to determine the properties of the soil that make it a suitable place for future lunar stations and to prepare the instrumentation of the spacecraft that will carry people there.
Furthermore, the mission will also attempt to detect any traces of water ice at polar altitudes, a possible precondition for long-term lunar habitation. Scientists have already gathered data on this matter by studying satellite images of the lunar surface, revealing the presence of dark patches that may be rich in ice.
However, it will be necessary to perform a comprehensive ground-based study of the lunar surface to locate the actual locations of these deposits of water ice. For this purpose, it is essential to send a lander equipped with a multifunctional system that can detect subsurface ice by means of radar and optical sensors and verify its properties using contact/drilling/excavation systems.
This will be the first Russian lander to do so, and it will be based on an entirely domestically made platform. The Lavochkin Research and Production Association, the organization behind the development of the vehicle, told TASS that it would use “a completely Russian element base and the latest achievements in the field of space instrumentation.”
It will also be the first spacecraft to practice soft lunar landing, taking and analyzing soil samples and conducting long-term scientific research on the Moon’s surface. The four-legged lander will touch down in the lunar south pole region, which is a much more challenging area than most lunar landings, as they are usually carried out near the lunar equator.
The Luna-25 and Chandrayaan 3 missions will operate for a year, giving them ample time to conduct their experiments. As for the possibility of their missions interfering with each other, Roscosmos has reassured that the two will not collide as they have separate landing areas planned.
The Luna-25 is just the first of a series of five lunar missions that Moscow has planned. The next one, Luna 26, is scheduled to launch in 2023 or 2024, and Luna 27 will follow in 2027-2028. Earlier this year, the European Space Agency had been preparing to participate in these projects, but it suspended its involvement following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
