Understanding Luna 25: Russia’s First Lunar Spacecraft in Over 45 Years

The Luna 25 mission failed after the spacecraft crashed on the lunar surface after losing all communication following the pre-landing command. The blog Luna 25 mission and how it was Russia’s shot at regaining a top position in space exploration.

By Topperlearning Expert 25th Aug, 2023 | 11:09 am

The much-anticipated race to the lunar south pole, headed by India’s Chandrayaan 3 and Russia’s Luna 25, came to an unfortunate end as Luna 25 crashed into the Moon soon after entering the pre-landing stage. Here is all you need to know about Russia’s first attempt to land a probe on the Moon after 1976 - Luna 25.

The Luna 25 was launched on 11th August 2023, at 2:11 am Moscow time, from Vostochny Cosmodrome in the eastern end of Russia by the Soyuz-2.1 rocket. It entered the Moon’s orbit on 16th August, and on 19th August, soon after the lander fired its engines to enter the pre-landing stage, all communications with the probe were lost. It was then confirmed that the lander had crashed on the Moon. The mission cost Russia over 130 million USD.

The Luna Program

The Luna program refers to a series of missions carried out by the Soviet Union to send spacecraft to the Moon between 1959 and 1976. The then USSR was a leader in space exploration and had contributed to many firsts, including launching the first spacecraft to reach the Moon and land. Out of all the spacecraft launched, a total of 15 were successful and included flybys, rovers, landers, impactors, soft landers and sample return spacecraft. Each contributed immensely to the study of the Moon, offering details of its gravity, radiation, chemical composition and temperature.

In the Luna Program, 24 spacecraft were officially called Luna. The design for the Luna 25 mission began in the late 1990s, and Russia finally launched the spacecraft in 2023 after multiple delays over the years.

About Luna 25

Luna 25, earlier called the Luna-Glob-Lander, was launched to land near the Boguslavsky crater. It aimed to study the composition of the lunar South Pole for the next one-year, evaluating the dust components and plasma of the Moon’s polar exosphere. If the Luna 25 had landed successfully, it would have made Russia the first country to have made a successful soft landing on the South Pole of the Moon.

The Main Components of Luna 25

The Luna 25 Lander was a four-legged stationary structure that contained propellant tanks and landing rockets. It had a 30-kilogram payload that carried 8 Russian science equipment to help the lander carry out its objectives. The lander also had a 1.6m long Lunar Robotic Arm, which would have collected regolith from 20 to 30 cm below the surface.

The eight scientific instruments included:

ARIES-L - to detect plasma, charged neutrals and particles in the exosphere.
ADRON-LR - a spectrometer to conduct a gamma-ray and active neutron analysis of regolith.
LASMA-LR - a laser mass spectrometer that will estimate the composition of regolith samples.
THERMO-L - for the evaluation of regolith thermal properties.
LIS-TV-RPM - an infrared spectrometer that would measure the minerals, OH and surface water on the Moon.
PmL - to study and measure micro-meteorites and dust in the polar exosphere.
STS-L - a local and panoramic imaging system.
Laser retroreflector - to support the other instruments in the ranging experiments.

Conclusion

Russia has the Luna 26 and Luna 27 missions lined up to launch for the Moon, but their status as of now is unclear. The crash of Luna 25 has inevitably delayed their launch. The Luna 25 mission was Russia’s first Moon mission since 1976, when Luna 24 returned to Earth with samples from the Moon.

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