Explosive Luna 25 Impact on Moon’s Surface!!!

Introduction  

In this world all countries are trying their best to explore space. They are spending millions of dollars on space programs. Space agencies like NASA, ISRO, ROSCOSMOS and more are trying to reach the moon, mars and explore them. And these things create a space war. Every space agency wants to be the first to achieve in space. In this space war Russian space agency announced a space mission Luna 25 and they are going to launch on 10 august 2023. Luna 25 is a robotic structure full of scientific instruments to explore the moon’s surface and do experiments. Luna 25 is also known as Luna-Glob-Lander or Luna-Glob-1.    

What was the mission of Luna 25 on the moon surface? 

The mission of Luna 25 was exploring the south pole on moon which basically less explored area of moon surface. For this mission there were two scientific objectives. First to study composition of the polar regolith and second is to study the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere. Russia wanted to be the first country to explore the south pole on moon surface. This robotic lander was designed to explore and examine the south pole of the moon for the next year. Demonstrating the landing technology was also a part of the mission. Luna 25 was sent to the south pole of the moon because it is a less explored area and there are chances to have water in ice form which will help in future moon missions.  

About the Luna 25? 

Luna 25 is a robotic lander designed for moon surface. It has four legs with landing rockets. This lander also has propellant tanks. This lander upper compartment contained solar panels, equipment for communication, computers, radio thermal heaters, radiators. The weight of this lander is roughly around 800kgs (about 1763.7 lb.). For experiments and examine the moon surface it has a robotic arm.

This arm was around 1.6mitter long which is called lunar robotic arm (LRA). This arm was designed to remove and collect moon surface samples by digging 20 to 30cms (about 11.81 in). This arm had a scoop (175 cubic cm volume) and a sample acquisition tool and a 4.7 cm (about 1.85 in) long tube with an internal diameter of 1.25 cm (about 0.49 in). The LRA has four degrees of rotation with shoulder, elbow and spoon/wrist. The LRA has weight of 5.5kgs and on maximum power it uses 50W and at minimum power it uses 30W.  

For the scientific experiments this lander contained eight scientific instruments. For examine and study the surface it had ADRON-LR which is a gamma rays and neutrons spectrometer. For charged and neutral particles, it has an instrument called ARIES-L. Which will detect charged particles and neutrals in the polar exosphere.  The next one is LIS, which stands for laser infrared spectrometer. It’s designed for detecting solar radiation from the lunar surface. Which will allow us to figure out surface water and OH. This device is mounted on the LRA.

Next is laser mass spectrometer (LAZMA-LR) to measure a composition of regolith collected by LRA. LAZMA-LR is designed to ablate surface material with a strong laser pulse and use a detector to measure the mass, charge, and time of flight of the ionized particles in the resulting plasma. Next is a PML detector for dust and micrometeoroids. It helps to study dust components and dynamic on the surface. The PML detector provides direct measurements of particle momentum, velocity, mass, and charge, comprising three essential components: an Impact Sensor, a Charge Sensor, and two Electrostatic Sensors.

Next is STS- L. The STS-L television system is composed of eight digital cameras equipped with CMOS sensors, alongside an electronic control and data storage unit. This system boasts the capability to record video during the primary braking sequence, capture panoramic images during descent and landing, and provide stereoscopic imaging capabilities after touchdown. And the last one is Thermo-L to study thermal properties of surface.  

Luna 25: from launch to crash  

Luna 25 was launched on 10 Aug 2023 23:10 UTC. The launch location was Vostochny, Cosmodrome, Russia. Luna 25 started its journey in a Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat rocket. After its successful launch Luna 25 spent 5 days in earth orbit and it accelerated towards the moon. After that Luna 25 successfully entered lunar orbit. Then it remained in moon orbit for 7 days. Now it was preparing to land on moon. Luna 25 was targeted to land on the south pole on the moon. The expected date of landing was 22 Aug and location was Boguslavsky, south pole of the moon.

The exact main landing site was 69.545S, 43.544E. ROSCOSMOS announced that they have lost contact with Luna 25 on 19 Aug, Saturday. They are trying to get connected with Luna 25 again. But on 20 Aug 2023 ROSCOSMOS officially announced on telegram that Luna 25 has crashed on moon surface due to technical glitch it was entered in wrong orbit.  

How did Luna 25 crash?  

From the launch to entering moon orbit Luna 25 performed perfectly. But due to some technical issues Russian space agency lost the communication with Luna 25 on Saturday 19 Aug 2023. The space agency tried to get connected with spacecraft again. But on Sunday 20 Aug 2023 they announced that Due to the deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse (rocket firing) from the calculated ones, the device (spacecraft) switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface. 

Right now, as per the social media and news the main reason behind this crash not published by the Russian space agency. They are still analyzing and finding the actual reason. But quick analysis says that thrust fire went wrong during landing. This miss fire created technical problems and pushed Luna 25 into the wrong orbit. Additionally, communication was also switched off and flight controllers were unable to re-established communication. This all made Luna 25 into crash.  

Conclusion 

This mission was very important for Russia. This was Russia’s first moon mission after 50 years. And this was targeting the south pole of the moon which is an unexplored area. We could have got more information about the moon. It is very disappointing but still Luna 25 did not leave empty hand. Luna 25 had a new launch and moon orbit insurgent technology where it was successful. Luna 25 gave us information about moon orbit insurgent. Luna 25 also sent some photos of the lunar south pole as well.

So, let’s hope for the best. Because in this race Luna 25 was not alone there is another moon lander is approaching the moon south pole. Chandrayan 3 is still on the way to the moon south pole. I hope Chandrayan 3 will successfully land on the moon surface and make this mission successful.  

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References

• https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/20/world/luna-25-spacecraft-moon-collision-intl/index.html
• https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=LUNA-25
• https://rajneetug2021.com/luna-25-moon-mission/
• https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/20/science/russia-moon-space-crash.html#:~:text=Luna%2D25%20was%20to%20have,planning%20to%20build%20with%20China.
• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-luna-25-crash-landing-moon/
• https://www.russianspaceweb.com/luna_glob_lander.html
• https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/story/landing-part-is-most-difficult-say-netizens-as-russias-luna-25-crash-lands-on-moon-394796-2023-08-20