Russia is set to launch its first lunar landing spacecraft after 47 years on Friday i.e. on 11 August. This mission comes as landing date for India’s Chandrayaan-3 approaches. The timeline of their landing on the Moon’s surface could match or could even narrowly beat Chandrayaan-3.
Rough terrain on the Moon makes a landing difficult, but the south pole is a prized destination because scientists believe that it could hold significant quantities of ice which could be used to extract fuel and oxygen, as well as for drinking water.
When will Russia’s Luna-25 land on the Moon?
The launch from the Russia’s spaceport, Vostochny cosmodrome, 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow is set to take four weeks after India sent up its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander which is due to touch down at the pole on 23 August.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos has told Reuters that its Luna-25 spacecraft would take five days to fly to the moon and then spend five to seven days in lunar orbit before descending on one of three possible landing sites near the pole.
Earlier on 8 August, ISRO chairman S Somanath said that Vikram, the lander of India’s third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, will be able to make a soft-landing on the Moon’s surface on August 23 even if all the sensors and two of its engines do not work. During a talk on ‘Chandrayaan-3: Bharat’s Pride Space Mission’ which was hosted by the non-profit organisation, he said, “ The entire design of the lander ‘Vikram’ has been made in a manner that makes sure that it would be able to handle failures,” as quoted by PTI.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday said the GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle, which lifted off successfully with the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, underwent a planned orbit reduction manoeuvre, bringing it closer to the moon.
Roscosmos says two missions would not get in each other’s way
Roscosmos have said that the two missions would not get in each other’s way because they have different landing areas planned, Reuters have reported. “There is no danger that they interfere with each other or collide. There is enough space for everyone on the moon,” it said as quoted by Reuters.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 is due to run experiments for two weeks while Luna-25 will work on the moon for a year. With a mass of 1.8 tons and carrying 31 kg (68 pounds) 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, as reported by Reuters.
The launch of Luna-25 was originally planned for October 2021, but was delayed by nearly two years. Earlier, The European Space Agency (ESA) had planned to test its Pilot-D navigation camera by attaching it to Luna-25, however, it broke off its ties to the project after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year.
Ahead of the launch, the residents of a village of Shakhtinsky in the far-eastern region of Khabarovsk will be evacuated from their homes at 7.30 am on Friday as of a “one in a million chance” that one of the rocket stages that launches Luna-25 could fall to earth there, reports have stated. Moreover, hunters and fishermen in the region have also been warned.
(With inputs from Reuters, PTI)
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Updated: 09 Aug 2023, 07:44 AM IST