Just as the Soviet Union did in its time, Russia was a send to space race And this Friday he intends to make history. first country Successfully landed at the Moon’s south pole, the promised new realm of space exploration. Purpose: to obtain a geopolitical point and extract water. At the moment, the competitor to beat is India, the country where success is questionable.
Moscow is planning this robotic probe Luna-25 Departure from the Earth’s surface at 02:10:57 Moscow time (one hour less in Spain) and with the mission to land near Earth Bogulawsky craterA depression 97 kilometers in diameter on the northern side of the celestial body. HE russian moon program left discontinued since 1976country yet Soviet Union. after take off Russian Vostochny Cosmodrome The Russian space agency Roscosmos reported that the mission will take five days to reach lunar orbit, where it will stay for about a week before attempting to land in the South Pole.
wrestling with india
Although relations between New Delhi and Moscow were good, they became rivals in the space arena. Although India sent its ship 28 days earlier than its Russian counterpart, the latter is expected to arrive sooner. According to Roscosmos calculations, the landing will take place from August 21 to 23. New Delhi recently launched the Chandraayan space mission 14 July, entered lunar orbit on August 5 and is scheduled to land on the 23rd of this month at the earliest. India will be the fourth country after him to reach a terrestrial satellite. Russia, United States of America And Chinese. The latter managed to land on the dark side of the Moon in 2019, becoming the second country to do so.
The Russian project on the Moon is expected to serve as a test new landing methods and take samples from the surface of the satellite. This is a long-term project, the Indian project will be much shorter, about 14 Earth days, which takes about a moonlight period. The two devices will reach different parts of the moon’s south pole.
From cooperation to competition
In addition to different types of rocks, the Russian mission will also be possible ice off of the selenite ice pack being the first to be able to examine the water in question. During the Soviet era, Moscow had already sent 24 instruments to the lunar surface while competing with NASA in the space race in the midst of the Cold War. Missions Luna-26 and Luna-27 are scheduled to launch in the future.
The current difficult relationship between Moscow and Western countries has increased the space rivalry between them and dynamited the pre-conflict atmosphere with Ukraine, with which they collaborated on different projects.