BACKGROUND «LUNA-25» PROJECT AND MAIN OBJECTIVE
In August 2023, the first automatic spacecraft in modern Russian history, “Luna-25”, is scheduled to be launched to the Earth’s natural satellite from the Vostochny Cosmodrome using “Soyuz-2.1b” carrier rocket with “Fregat” upper stage. It will make a soft landing in the near of the Moon’s South Pole to study the lunar regolith and exosphere.
Why are we going there ?
– One of the reasons for the current “hype” around the Moon is the possible extraction of lunar resources, primarily rare earth metals associated with metallic meteorites that collided with the Moon during its evolution. And secondly, water ice reserves at the poles. And here the data from the Russian scientific device LEND played a key role.
In general, there were quite a few experiments that were focused on finding water on the Moon. Probably, each scientific group, which was engaged in them, considers itself the author of these discoveries, but, in any case, Russian scientists played a very big role in this discovery.
Thanks to data from the LEND device, which has been working near the Moon since 2009 (aboard the LRO NASA orbital station – Ed.), we defined the current concept of the study of the “polar Moon” in 2010.
No one was talking about such a program at that time. At that time, Russia was slowly preparing the “Luna-Globe” lunar project. This work was carried out by the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (GEOCHI), and its task was to study the internal structure of the Moon using penetrators. Penetrators are impact probes that were supposed to penetrate the lunar soil at high speed at three or four points. It was planned that the penetrators would contain seismic sensors that would transmit data to Earth via repeaters. As a result, it would be possible to obtain information about the size of the Moon’s core, which is very important for understanding the history of its origin. In general, it would certainly be a very important experiment for fundamental science.
A small “lyrical digression”. Actually, GEOСHI always been the leader of lunar research. At our SRI, the Moon did not attract much attention – the main focus was on studies of atmospheres and the plasma environment of the planets.
When developing these stations, the question appeared, who would actually be able to produce these penetrators? It turned out that there were no such organizations in Russia in the 1990s. Japan was involved. Japanese penetrators even reached the tests, but it turned out that they could not withstand the shock load of 300-400 g, which occurs when colliding with the lunar surface. Then, without success, British specialists joined in, I even saw a special rail installation for testing such devices, but as a result, by the end of the 2000s, work on the project “Luna-Globe”, unfortunately, came to a standstill.
But just at that time, we received data from our neutron telescope LEND, which as a result of a tough tender we installed on the American lunar spacecraft Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Before that there were data on the presence of water, thanks to the first Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan 1, but more or less detailed map of water ice distribution was obtained by Russian specialists. Moreover, it was shown that there is water not only in “cold traps” – permanently shaded places inside polar craters (which, in principle, is quite expected), but also outside them. This generated a lot of controversy at the time – what processes could create this distribution?
But as a result, we understood that, having started with the study of the Moon, we could also think about its future exploration – and it is the presence of water ice that should play a key role here. Then we very quickly proposed a new lunar program – a program for the study of the “polar Moon”, received the support of the country’s leadership and, around 2011-2012, began work on it.
From the academic study of the Moon’s structure in the interests of, as they say, fundamental science, we moved to the practical study of lunar water reserves.
At that time, the spacecraft mission was scheduled for about 2016-2017. I didn’t like this index named “Glob” – and I’m proud to have come up with a numbering option that continues the Soviet series of stations to study our natural satellite. The station became “Luna-25”, although by inertia it is still called “Luna-Glob” in contracts.
“Luna-25” is planned to be the first spacecraft in the new series. The development of the next spacecrafts was already under the “Luna-Resurs” program. “Luna-26” is an artificial satellite of the Moon, “Luna-27” is a more complex landing station with a drilling rig. “Luna-28” is to deliver soil, but not like the Soviet “Lunas”, but with the preservation of volatile components, including water ice. If you take a sample of soil, as the Soviet “Moon” did, the water, if it is there, will simply vaporize at zero ambient pressure on the Moon, and we will not know whether it was there or not.
But I will go back to history again. Initially, “Luna-25” was to be launched together with India’s second lunar lander, “Chandrayaan 2”, on an Indian carrier rocket. There were many working meetings, but later the interaction somehow fell apart. The friendship was kept, but each went their own way.
“Chandrayaan 2” was launched in 2019. Unfortunately, the landing vehicle crashed on landing, but the orbiter is flying successfully and is quite decent.
Over the years, the concept of the “polar Moon” has become global, and now a whole an armada of spaceships, will going to fly there. The Americans have concluded a contract with fourteen different companies to deliver landing stations to the Moon, and this program is also beginning to be implemented. Just recently, in mid-July, India’s Chandrayaan 3 lunar lander was launched with the same mission and is scheduled to land on August 22.
But I hope that we will be the first to land in the near-polar region and conduct the first direct experiments to study and search for water. This will be the baseline from which everyone will then build on.
So the successful flight of “Luna-25” will mean a lot, and it is important not only for pure fundamental science.
© Roscosmos State Corporation
According to Igor Mitrofanov, head of the Department of Nuclear Planetology (SRI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the launch of the Russian automatic space station “Luna-25” is scheduled for August 11, 2023 with a backup date of August 12. The landing on the Moon in this case may take place from August 20 to 23. Experts believe that Roscosmos will beat India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission by two days in performing the moon landing procedure.