On Friday, August 11, at 02:11 Moscow time, the Soyuz-2.1b medium rocket with the Fregat upper stage and the Luna-25 automatic interplanetary station (AMS) — the first scientific mission to a natural satellite of the Earth in the history of modern Russia - was launched from the 1C complex of the Vostochny cosmodrome .
According to the regular program, the station's flight to the Moon will require up to 5.5 days, during which it is planned to make two corrections. After the first AMS should be in a near-polar orbit with a height of 100 kilometers, where it will work from 3 to 7 days, choosing an area for landing. During the second correction, an AMS landing orbit will be formed with a minimum distance of 18 kilometers to the surface of the Moon.
The developer of the automatic station, the Semyon Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association, estimates the probability of success of the mission at 80 percent.
The USSR sent AMS to the moon about half a century ago
One of the main tasks of the first Russian mission to a natural satellite of the Earth is to work out the technology of soft landing on the surface of another celestial body. It is expected that the lander will arrive in the area of the Boguslavsky crater near the south pole of the Moon, probably rich in water ice deposits, and will conduct research there on the properties and composition of the polar soil, measuring its mechanical characteristics.
During the last Soviet mission, called Luna-24, which took place in August 1976, samples of lunar soil were delivered to Earth from a satellite.
The Luna-25 lander is equipped with a manipulator arm
The mass of the launched Luna-25 station is 1,605 kilograms, of which 1,000 kilograms account for fuel and 20 kilograms for scientific equipment.
One of the main scientific instruments of Luna-25 is a manipulator arm, with the help of which it is planned to deliver samples of lunar soil to a device for measuring the chemical, elemental and isotopic composition of regolith.
Among other devices, in particular, a neutron and gamma ray detector, which will study the lunar soil at a depth of up to 60 centimeters, and an energy mass spectrometer designed to study the outer part of the upper atmosphere of the Moon.
Russia is to launch two more lunar missions this decade
According to the scientific report of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Luna-27 mission should land 10 degrees closer to the South Pole of the Earth's natural satellite than Luna-25, which will descend near the parallel of 70 degrees south latitude.
After it and Luna-27, Russian experts plan to send the Luna-28 spacecraft to the planet's natural satellite, which involves the delivery of lunar soil samples to Earth.
Currently, the implementation of the Luna-26 and Luna-27 missions is scheduled for 2027-2028, the timing of the Luna-28 program depends on their success, among other things. And finally, as part of the Luna-29 mission, the Russian side plans to send a planetoid to the Earth's natural satellite.
China, the USA and India are actively studying the Moon
Currently, China is engaged in the most active research of the Moon, which, in particular, has a rover on the reverse side of the Earth's natural satellite. The finale of the Chinese lunar program should be the deployment of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) in the 2030s.
India is also making a second attempt to soft-land its spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, which on July 14 sent the Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Earth's natural satellite, including a lander and a rover. According to experts, the Russian mission, despite the later launch, should land earlier than the Indian one.
In the 2020s, the United States and partners in the Artemis program plan to fly around the Earth's natural satellite on a manned spacecraft, and then, probably in the next decade, a man's descent to the moon.
By html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">according to Vladimir Surdin, senior researcher at the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute of the Mikhail Lomonosov Moscow State University, in addition to science, "ideology and politics" also matter in sending a man to the moon.