Russia recently launched the country’s first lunar research station, the Luna-25. The launch was at 02:11 Moscow time from the Vostochny cosmodrome, using the Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the Fregat upper stage. The flight will take about five days.
The successor of the Soviet apparatus
Luna-25 will be the first mission to the Moon in the history of the Russian Federation, but the number in the title clearly indicates continuity from the Soviet program. At the same time, the last Luna-24 in the USSR was launched not so long ago, in 1976, during the period of the Apollo flights and the moon race. It should be noted that only successful flights received numbers and publicity (there were many more attempts), and a number of lunar missions belonged to the Zond and Cosmos series. In total, eight Soviet vehicles landed on the moon (American – five automatic and six manned).
The Soviet lunar exploration program was successful, and Luna 16 to 24, with the exception of 18, would either bring soil samples or deliver an automatic planetary rover. At the same time, the success of the Luna-24 was ahead of its time: 0.1% water was found in the soil brought to Earth, but the scientific community ignored these data, since the earth satellite was considered absolutely dry. Water samples were also brought in by the Apollo crews, but the Americans believed that upon arrival the soil had absorbed it from the earth’s atmosphere. Only in the 90s did scientists believe in the existence of ice on the moon, thanks to data from the Clementine satellite.
Where does the Luna 25 fly?
A new wave of interest in the terrestrial satellite in the 21st century is largely associated with the discovery of water on it. Its reserves are mainly concentrated closer to the poles and are in the South Pole region, where the first Russian lunar probe was sent. Luna-25’s main landing site is north of Boguslavsky crater and the reserve region is southwest of Manzini crater, both points just south of the 70th parallel. Before that, the Chinese Chang’e-4 (45.5 ° S) and the lunar race during the 20th century – Surveyor-7 (40.86 ° S). According to satellite images, both landing sites of Luna 25 are rich in water ice.
Why is he flying?
Nearly all of the engineers and scientists who made the Soviet lunar missions successful were either dead or retired. The ability to organize such missions has largely been lost, and therefore the fact of launching the Luna-25 is significant in itself.
“Today, when you analyze past research, such as the creation and use of drilling rigs, the question sometimes arises, how were people able to do this in those days? After all, they made it from scratch, they knew little about the Moon, they did not have modern computer modeling methods. It was necessary to solve the problems only because of the large number of full-scale tests, ”
– said Maxim Litvak, professor at IKI RAS and chief planner of the probe’s scientific equipment complex.
The main scientific mission of the Luna-25 is to search for water and other volatile compounds in the lunar regolith, as well as to study soil and dust. This will help answer fundamental scientific questions about the Earth’s natural satellite: how did it form, how did it evolve, what are the conditions on the surface now? Also, the polar regions of the Moon are a giant natural storage chamber where materials falling from space have been lying for billions of years. Examining the contents of this room will allow you to learn more about the history of the Sun, the Solar System and the Universe.
On the other hand, a new lunar race has begun in the 21st century and the main task of the participants is to establish a long-term outpost on the Moon. This is nearly impossible without relying on local resources, as it would be very expensive to ship every single brick and bottle of water from Earth. Therefore, it is necessary to find out exactly where the ice is in the soil layer, in what form (fine dust, large grains, large-scale ice floes) and how it can be removed. In addition to ice, astronauts on the Moon will need other resources, such as building shelters and making tools. Therefore, it is necessary to find out what else can be extracted from the regolith on a small but industrial scale. This data will be needed by both Russian and foreign counterparts if it is possible to land cosmonauts and start building a base in the early 2030s.
How is the Luna-25 arranged?
Outwardly, the apparatus resembles its predecessor, the Luna-24. But only the lower part is the landing stage. Easily recognized by the rounded fuel system tanks. The upper part of the two devices is fundamentally different – the Soviet probe was supposed to launch a capsule with lunar soil to Earth, and the Russian probe will conduct on-site research using a miniature automated scientific laboratory.
The scientists’ eyes on the surface will be the eight STS-L camera complex. Of these, four are panoramic, oriented in four different directions, two are stereoscopic to control the manipulator, and two are downward directed descent. The researchers will use the LMC manipulator as their arm. It will be able to dig up the lunar soil to study its mechanical properties and then place the samples in research instruments. An infrared spectrometer LIS-TV-RPM is installed at the “bracket” of the manipulator, which can remotely determine the composition of the soil in the excavation.
ADRON-LR, a neutron and gamma-ray detector, plays a particularly important role in the search for water. It is installed under the device and can detect ice (or hydrogen) at a depth of up to 60 centimeters without direct contact. The ARIES-L ion energy-mass analyzer is designed to study the properties of the lunar exosphere (the dilute “atmosphere”), and the PmL detector is designed to study scattered dust.