Russia announced, on Saturday, that its mission to land on the moon, “Luna-25”, is facing an abnormal technical problem, according to what was announced by the Russian space agency, “Roskosmos”.
The spacecraft is scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon on Monday, as part of a race between the 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.
She added that the specialists analyze the situation, without going into details.
Roskosmos said 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.
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 devices 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 National 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 01:11:11
