Following India’s Chandrayaan-3, Russia Aims for the Moon for first time in 47 years

Moscow(Russia), 11/08/23: Russia is resuming its moon expedition in the midst of its conflict with Ukraine. The launch of a rocket carrying the Luna-25 spacecraft marks Russia’s return to lunar exploration after a pause since 1976.

The mission’s goal is to successfully land an exploration spacecraft on the moon’s southern pole in order to discover water ice beneath the lunar surface.

All of this is taking on at the same time as India’s third unmanned lunar mission, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, is on its way to the moon and has obtained magnificent images of both the Moon and Earth.

The rocket launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 5,550 kilometres east of Moscow, at 2:11 a.m. on Friday Moscow time, with its upper stage propelling the lander out of Earth’s orbit and towards the moon an hour later, according to Russia’s space agency Roscosmos.

NASA confirmed the presence of water molecules in sunny regions of the moon’s surface in 2020, marking a watershed milestone. The possible availability of recoverable water holds enormous promise for lunar exploration, providing nutrition for future human missions, fuel via hydrogen extraction, and possibly agricultural potential.

Luna-25 is expected to travel the lunar distance in five days, then spend five to seven days in orbit before landing on the moon.

Luna-25 is expected to conduct a variety of experiments over the next year, utilising its 31 kilogramme of research equipment. As it proceeds on the hunt to uncover frozen water sources, one of its tools is a scoop capable of obtaining samples from depths of up to 15 cm (six inches).