Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft has encountered an “abnormal situation” while attempting to enter a pre-landing orbit targeting the moon’s south pole, according to Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos. The incident occurred earlier this month and specialists from Roscosmos are currently analyzing the situation. The agency has not provided details about the specific problem or whether it will affect Luna-25’s landing.
The Luna-25 mission aims to land on the moon’s south pole, a region of great interest to scientists due to the possibility of finding water. The permanently shadowed polar craters in this area are believed to potentially contain frozen water that could be used as air and rocket fuel in the future. Russia is racing against an Indian spacecraft to be the first to land on the moon’s south pole.
Recently, the Russian spacecraft sent its first information back to Earth. Although Roscosmos is still analyzing the data, preliminary results indicate that the collected samples contain information about the chemical elements of the lunar soil. Additionally, the spacecraft’s equipment detected evidence of a “micrometeorite impact.”
Roscosmos shared images taken by Luna-25 of the Zeeman crater, which is located in the moon’s southern hemisphere. This crater has a diameter of 190km (118 miles) and is 8km (five miles) deep.
The launch of Luna-25 from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport on August 10 marked Russia’s return to lunar missions after a hiatus since 1976. The country aims to demonstrate its capability to deliver payloads to the moon and secure guaranteed access to the moon’s surface.
However, Russia’s space program has been affected by Western sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine. Restricted access to Western technology has made it more challenging for Russia to advance its space program. To improve reliability, analysts believe that the decision to abandon the plan of including a small moon rover on Luna-25 was made to reduce the craft’s weight.
So far, successful moon landings have been achieved by only three governments: the Soviet Union, the United States, and China. India and Russia are competing to become the first to land on the moon’s south pole. The Luna-25 mission was scheduled to reach the moon between August 21-23, around the same time as the Indian craft launched on July 14.