After nearly 50 years, Russia is ready to send a mission to the Moon’s surface, joining the new wave of lunar exploration in the 21st century.
Luna-25 is scheduled to launch on Friday from Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East, shortly after India launched its own lunar lander, Chandrayaan-3, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the Bay of Bengal.
Both missions will aim to land on the Moon’s south pole on or around August 23. The race to the lunar surface is on, but it’s unclear which nation will get there first.
Lunar exploration is not an easy feat and requires a lot of resources, technology and cooperation.
The moon is the nearest heavenly body to Earth and has attracted many space missions since the beginning of the space era. However, not all countries have succeeded in reaching or landing on the moon. According to the web search results, only 11 countries and organizations have sent spacecraft to the moon, such as landers, orbiters, impactors or flybys. These are: The Soviet Union, United States, Japan, China, India, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, and the European Union.
Among these 11 entities, only three have landed softly on the moon: the United States of America, Russia and China. The United States is the only country that has sent humans to the moon, with 12 astronauts walking on the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972 as part of the Apollo program. Russia was the first country to hit the moon with Luna 2 in 1959 and to bring back lunar samples with Luna 16 in 1970. China has recently emerged as a major force in lunar exploration, with its Chang’e program that has landed four spacecraft on the moon since 2013, including the first one on the far side of the moon in 2019.
The other eight entities have only achieved orbiting or flyby missions to the moon.
Japan has launched two orbiters: Hiten in 1990 and Kaguya in 2007. India has launched two orbiters and one lander: Chandrayaan-1 in 2008, Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 and Vikram in 2019. However, Vikram crashed on the lunar surface and failed to land softly.
Israel has also tried to land a spacecraft on the moon in 2019, but Beresheet also crashed due to a malfunction. Italy has joined a mission with NASA called Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009. Luxembourg has worked with China in sending a small probe called Manfred Memorial Moon Mission in 2014.
South Korea has sent an orbiter called Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter in 2020. The United Arab Emirates has sent an orbiter called Emirates Lunar Mission in 2022.
The European Union has sent an orbiter called Smart-1 in 2003 as part of the European Space Agency.
Russia and India are going to the lunar south pole, which has never been visited by an active surface mission. The region is a major target for many upcoming Moon missions, including the NASA-led Artemis Program, which plans to land humans on the south pole in the next decade.
Scientists believe that the southern polar regions of the Moon have abundant ice and minerals that could support life, such as drinking water, and also help with human exploration of the Moon.
For this purpose, the 68-pound Luna 25 lander has a robotic arm and scoop that can look for ice and other materials that could be useful for future missions. Luna 25 is expected to work for about a year.
Chandrayaan-3 plans to send a 57-pound rover named Pragyan to the Moon’s south pole, which will only work for a few weeks as it cannot survive the cold lunar night.
Photo Credits: Vice