A model of the Russian Luna-25 spacecraft
outer space
The spacecraft was due to land on the moon’s south pole on Monday, part of a race between major powers to explore a part of the moon that scientists believe may contain frozen water and precious elements.
Posted on: August 20, 2023: 12:59 PM GST Last updated: August 20, 2023: 01:51 PM GST
The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, announced on Sunday that Luna-25, the first probe launched by Russia to the moon since 1976, crashed Saturday on the surface of the moon, following an accident, during a preparatory maneuver for its landing, which was scheduled for Monday.
The agency said in a statement that on Saturday afternoon, “at approximately 14:57 (11:57 GMT), communication with Luna-25 was lost,” noting that “according to the preliminary results” of the investigation, the probe “no longer exists after it collided with the surface of the moon.”
In its statement, Roscosmos regretted that “the measures taken on August 19 and 20 to search for and contact the probe did not produce any results.”
The statement indicated that a “ministerial committee” would seek to understand the “causes” of the accident that caused the probe’s “loss”. The agency did not mention in its statement the possible causes of the problem.
Yesterday, Saturday, Roskosmos reported that an “abnormal situation” had occurred in the Russian Luna-25 spacecraft as it was preparing to move into a pre-landing orbit.
The spacecraft was due to land on the moon’s south pole on Monday, part of a race between major powers to explore a part of the moon that scientists believe may contain frozen water and precious elements.
“During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automated station that did not allow the maneuver to be carried out with the established fixed parameters,” Roskosmos said in a brief statement on Saturday.
Roskosmos had previously said that it had received the first results from the Luna-25 mission and that it was being analyzed.
The agency also published pictures of the “Zeman” crater on the surface of the moon taken from the Luna-25 spacecraft, and said that the Zeeman crater is the third deepest crater in the southern half of the moon, with a diameter of 190 km and a depth of eight km.
Luna-25 launch
Roskosmos said that the data it has received so far provides information about the chemical elements present in the lunar soil and would also facilitate the work of instruments designed to study the shallow surface of the moon.
She added that her equipment recorded “a collision of minute meteorites.”
Luna-25 entered lunar orbit on Wednesday, the first Russian spacecraft to do so since 1976.
Luna-25 is about the size of a small car and aims to work for a year on the south pole of the moon, where scientists at the US Aeronautics and Space Administration “NASA” and other space agencies have discovered in the past few years traces of frozen water in the craters.
The presence of water has implications for the major space powers, as this may allow humans to extend the temporary stay of humans on the moon, enabling them to extract the resources on the moon.
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2023-08-20 08:59:00
