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Russia plans to send a rocket to the moon on August 10th. The Luna 25 mission will be Russia’s first lunar expedition since 1976.
Previously scheduled for launch numerous times since 2020, most recently on July 13th, the Luna-Glob-Lander will target the lunar south pole at the Boguslavsky crater.
According to NASA, “There are two primary scientific objectives of the mission: to study composition of the polar regolith, and to study the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere.
“The lander has a four-legged base containing the landing rockets and propellant tanks, an upper compartment holds the solar panels, communication equipment, on-board computers, and most of the science apparatus.”
Next Spaceflight reports, “The mission will carry 30 kg of scientific instruments, including a robotic arm for soil samples and possible drilling hardware.
“The lander must remain active for at least one year on the lunar surface. It is composed of two parts, the propulsive part, based on the Fregat stage, and the scientific part, which contains the main on-board computer as well as the various on-board experiments, coming from Russia, but also from Sweden and Switzerland.”
The United States, China and the former Soviet Union are the only nations to have successfully performed a soft landing on the moon.
On a related note, India hopes to be the fourth country to do so when the Chandrayaan-3 mission launches on July 13th. It will be India’s second attempt to soft land on the moon.
Meanwhile, NASA revealed last week that it has plans to develop resources on the moon in addition to landing Americans on the space rock as part of its Artemis mission for the first time in more than 50 years.
The manned moon mission is currently scheduled for 2025, Reuters reports, while plans for a large-scale excavation of moon soil and a pilot processing plant to extract resources such as water, iron, and other metals is planned for 2032.