History of Luna-25

on

 LUNA-25

RUSSIAN LUNAR LANDER MISSION 

                Luna-25 was planned to land near the lunar south pole near the crater Boguslawsky in August 2023 by Roscosmos which was a failed Russian lunar lander mission. Chief of Luna-25 is Roscosmos Director General Yury Borisov. The weight of Luna-25 is 1.8 tones. The total cost of Luna-25 is Rs.1600 crores. Luna-25 is also called as Luna-Globe.


Aim:

           As a part of International Lunar Research Station(ILRS) ,Luna-25 was the first in a series of Russian missions planned which is a project initiated by China and Russia to build a base at the lunar south pole by the mid-2023s with the aim of using the rich water-ice resources.

Objectives:

         Luna-25's main science goals included examining the regolith and rocks around it, looking at the flimsy lunar atmosphere and testing out technology for future landings on the moon.

Lander:

           The lander has a four-legged base consists of the landing rockets and propellant tanks, an upper compartment holds the solar panels, communication equipment, on-board computers, radiothermal heaters and radiators. Lunar Robotic Arm (LRA) of 1.6 meter long is used to remove and collect the surface regolith to depths of 20 to 30 cm which is in lander. Total mass of the LRA is 5.5kg, it uses 30W nominal and 50W maximum power.



The Lander includes 8 Russian science instruments:

  • ADROM-LR,  active neutron and gamma-ray analysis of regolith.
  • ARIES-L, measurement of plasma in the exosphere.
  • LASMA-LR, laser mass-spectrometer.
  • LIS-TV-RPM, infrared spectrometry of minerals and imaging.
  • PML, measurement of dust and micrometeorites.
  • THERMO-L, measurement of the thermal properties of regolith.
  • STS-L, panoramic and local imaging.
  • Laser retroreflector , Moon libration & ranging experiments.

Mission History:

             The Luna-25 mission launched on 10 August 2023, 23:10 UTC, a top a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's far eastern Amur Region. On 16 August, the lander entered lunar orbit. On 19 August 2023 at 11:57 UTC, the lander crashed on the Moon's surface after a failed orbital operation. 

Reason for failure:

            The main reason of the Luna-25  crash was an anomalous engine burn. Rather than the planned propulsive nudge of 84 seconds, the engine operated for 127 seconds, more than the required value in readying the probe for its descent burn. These are reported by Yuri Borisov, head of the Russia Space agency Roscosmos.