Russia launches Luna-25 in a bid to return to the moon Premium

What is Russia’s luna-25 mission? How will it impact space exploration?

Russia is once again foraying into lunar exploration with the much-anticipated launch of the Luna-25 which took off on August 11. 

If successful, this will be the first lunar mission by Russia to touch down on the moon’s surface in 47 years. 

The launch comes nearly a month after the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sent its own moon lander, Chandrayaan-3, which is supposed to land on August 23. 

The landing date for Luna 25 has not been announced yet but scientists expect it to take five to seven days. 

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The Luna 25 mission’s main objective is to execute a pinpoint landing near the moon’s south pole, a region that has garnered scientific interest due to its potential for revealing critical insights into the moon’s geological composition. The mission is primed to collect geological samples which will give scientists the opportunity to study this unexplored region of the moon. Furthermore, scientists also hope that the mission is successful in finding water or at least its building blocks which could aid in establishing human colonies in the near future. 

The landing craft was launched in a Souyz-2 Fregat rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome and is expected to stay on the moon for a year. In the meantime, it will collect samples using its robotic arm, collect data from its spectrometers, use the imaging systems to take pictures and beam all the information back to Earth.