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Russia’s 1st Moon mission in 47 Years failed after reports emerged on Saturday about failure confirm Russia Space agency Roscosmos. Luna 25 – Russia’s Moon lander crashed on the moon on 20-08-2023 just before one day of landing and missed the record of doing first one by any country on landing at South Pole on the moon. Now, all eyes of the world on India’s Chandrayaan – III to create that record on 23rd August at 6.00 p.m
According to the results of the preliminary analysis, due to the wrong parameters of the impulse, the spacecraft moved into an uncalculated orbit and crashed on the Moon.
This mission started on August 11, 2023, and the spacecraft successfully landed on the Moon’s south pole on August 23, 2023. The main aim of the mission was to learn more about the Moon’s south pole. The spacecraft, called Luna 25 lander, had some important tasks: it examined the soil on the Moon’s surface and also studied the very thin atmosphere around it. This mission was significant because it marked Russia’s first successful landing on the Moon since 1976, and one of the exciting things they wanted to find was water. The mission was carried out by Russia independently.
The Luna 25 mission comes with an estimated budget of approximately $200 million USD. (1600 crores).
Russia’s first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after a problem preparing for pre-landing orbit, underscoring the post-Soviet decline of a once mighty space programme.
This brings us to the fact that the race to lunar south pole was intensified with close landing dates of India’s Chandrayaan-3 and Russia’s Luna-25.
Chandrayaan – 3, is scheduled to land on lunar south pole on August 23 at 18:04 hours, whereas, Luna-25 was to land on southern pole of moon on August 21.
Both missions showed significant interest in exploration of south pole of moon owing to the its potential water resources and unique geological features. The relatively unexplored region is pivotal for future lunar missions, including the upcoming Artemis-III mission by US space agency NASA, which aims to carry humans to the Moon after a five-decade hiatus.
“The south pole of the Moon offers a treasure trove of scientific opportunities. Investigating this region will yield valuable insights, contributing to our understanding of the Moon’s history and evolution”, said Chrisphin Karthick, scientist at Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Astrophysics.
Experts say the findings from these missions will not only enrich our understanding of the lunar environment but also pave the way for future lunar exploration endeavours.The timing of landing was crucial too as it required sun to be rising when these probes landed on moon.
Hence the direct trajectory of lightweight Luna-25 was considered as a important factor in Russia’s second attempt at lunar exploration after 1976.Russia’s state space corporation, Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft at 11:57 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit.
A soft landing had been planned for Monday.”The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roskosmos said in a statement.Russia had not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin.
