Russia to launch moon lander after 5 decades in race with Indian craft | India News – Times of India
Russian space agency Roscosmos has said its Luna-25 spacecraft will take five days to fly to the Moon and then spend 5-7 days in the lunar orbit before descending on one of three possible landing sites near the pole. Despite the almost same landing schedule, Roscosmos has assured that there will be no interference between the two landing missions as they have different landing areas planned. “There is no danger that they interfere with each other or collide. There is enough space for everyone on the moon,” it said.
In comparison to the 1,752 kg weight of Chandrayaan-3 lander, the four-legged Russian lander weighs around 800 kg. If the landing is successful, the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover will run their experiments for 14 Earth days while Luna-25 will work on the Moon for a year. With a mass of 1.8 tonnes and carrying 31 kg of scientific equipment, Luna-25 will use a scoop to take rock samples from a depth of up to 15 cm (6 inches) to test for the presence of frozen water that could support human life.“The Luna-25 will have to practise soft-landing, take and analyse soil samples and conduct long-term scientific research,” a Russian space agency statement said.
Roscosmos said a Soyuz rocket has been assembled at the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East for the Luna-25 launch. The launch, originally planned for October 2021, has been delayed for nearly two years. The European Space Agency had planned to test its Pilot-D navigation camera by attaching it to Luna-25, but broke off its relations with the project after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
At the Vostochny cosmodrome last year, Putin had said the Soviet Union put the first man into space in 1961 despite “total” sanctions. He insisted Moscow would develop its lunar programme despite current Western sanctions. “We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite any difficulties and any attempts to prevent us in this movement from the outside,” Putin had said at the time.
China has also announced plans with Russia to set up a joint base on the Moon by 2035, but no timeline has been drawn up. China previously successfully landed its probes Chang’e 3 in 2013, Chang’e 4 in January 2019 and Chang’e 5 in 2020.
Besides the Chandrayaan-3 mission, India is likely to collaborate with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on a joint new lunar mission. Space scientists would send a lunar rover and lander to explore the Moon’s southern pole as part of this mission.
In August last year, South Korea launched its first-ever lunar mission. The mission was called the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri. The mission was managed by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). The goal of Danuri was to test South Korea’s lunar spacecraft technology.
