Russia’s Luna-25 space craft stopped functioning after colliding with the Moon

Landing on the Moon with Chandrayaan-3: How India has Learned from the Failure of 2019 Landing Mission, says Dr. Emanuel

“You have to make a lot of sophisticated calculations as you come in for landing to fire those thrusters just right,” Davis says. “There’s not a lot of margin for error.”

The Indian Space Research Organization knows this all too well. In 2019, it tried to land on the moon as part of its Chandrayaan-2 mission. But when the engines on the lander performed in an unexpected way, “the spacecraft did not know where it was, and crashed,” Davis says.

Chandrayaan-3 is basically a repeat of that failed 2019 attempt, Davis says. The seismology instruments on the moon can be used to study the moon’s environment, such as radiation and temperature. It’s also carrying a small solar-powered rover.

Davis thinks that India likely has learned a great deal by analyzing the data from its failed 2019 landing attempt. That means Chandrayaan-3 is more likely to succeed, he says.

The Challenge of Landing a Spacecraft Mission on the Lunar Surface, Or: What Are The Best Places in the South Pole?

The lack of atmosphere means there’s no way to slow down using a parachute. Instead, spacecraft must rely on thrusters to break their fall at just the right moment.

“The moon is kind of a unique challenge because it has no atmosphere,” says Jason Davis, an editor with the Planetary Society, a non-profit devoted to space exploration.

Because it’s a proven design, it should work pretty well. On the other hand, everyone who designed it and flew the old Luna missions nearly a half-century ago have since retired. Zak isn’t really sure if they’ll be able to stick the landing.

The mission has been planned for a long time, Zak says. It’s a relatively small four-legged lander with a robotic arm it can use to collect surface samples.

“The last such mission was in 1976,” Zak says. He says that the new mission is based on the old Soviet design. It’s an upgraded version of a Soviet craft from the 70s that landed on the moon.

Russia’s Luna-25 mission is currently scheduled to attempt its landing on August 21, while India will try to land its Chandrayaan-3 probe on August 23.

They’re also landing quite near each other on the lunar surface, according to Brett Denevi, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

The south pole is pretty cool right now because China and NASA want to land there too, but it also holds some of the most cool places in the world. That’s because some craters near the south pole lie in permanent shadow.

The failure of Roscosmos to land on the Moon: Implications for the emergence of water on the Earth and the Formation of the Moon

That means they might have some frozen water. Denevi says the water is interesting from a scientific standpoint because it could provide clues about how this life-giving compound came to our part of the solar system. Any nation that gets hold of that precious H2O would be able to use it for all sorts of things.

Anatoly Zak, the publisher of Russian SpaceWeb.com, said that Russia is very familiar with the moon. When it was part of the Soviet Union, it made more than a dozen trips to the moon.

Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft failed to land on the Moon, Roscosmos, Russia’s state-run space corporation, announced today. In a statement, the organization reported that the lander “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon.” It would’ve been the country’s first Moon landing since 1976.

After landing, the Luna-25 team wanted to study the Moon’s south pole ice for clues into the satellite’s formation. The emergence of water on the Earth may be linked to the ice analysis, as stated by a scientist quoted by the state-owned Russian news agency. The study will help determine if the Moon was blasted apart from the Earth or if it was formed by itself.