Russia's Luna-25 crashes before exploring the rich south pole of lunar surface

Russia's Luna-25 crashes before exploring the rich south pole of lunar surface

Russia's first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after a problem preparing for pre-landing orbit, underscoring the post-Soviet decline of a once mighty space programme.

This brings us to the fact that the race to lunar south pole was intensified with close landing dates of India's Chandrayaan-3 and Russia's Luna-25.

Chandrayaan - 3, is scheduled to land on lunar south pole on August 23 at 18:04 hours, whereas, Luna-25 was to land on southern pole of moon on August 21.

Both missions showed significant interest in exploration of south pole of moon owing to the its potential water resources and unique geological features. The relatively unexplored region is pivotal for future lunar missions, including the upcoming Artemis-III mission by US space agency NASA, which aims to carry humans to the Moon after a five-decade hiatus.

"The south pole of the Moon offers a treasure trove of scientific opportunities. Investigating this region will yield valuable insights, contributing to our understanding of the Moon's history and evolution", said Chrisphin Karthick, scientist at Bangalore's Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

Experts say the findings from these missions will not only enrich our understanding of the lunar environment but also pave the way for future lunar exploration endeavours.

The timing of landing was crucial too as it required sun to be rising when these probes landed on moon.

Hence the direct trajectory of lightweight Luna-25 was considered as a important factor in Russia's second attempt at lunar exploration after 1976.

Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft at 11:57 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday.

"The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon," Roskosmos said in a statement.

Russia had not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin.