A mini-race to the Moon is gonna happen over the next couple of weeks. The Chandrayaan-3 from the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is expected to land on the South Pole of the Moon between August 23 and August 24. And this week, Roscosmos has announced that its very delayed Luna 25 will launch sometime today or tomorrow, with a rough flight schedule that might take it to the Moon right around the same time as the Indian spacecraft.
The target for both spacecraft is the Southern Polar region of the Moon. That’s a target also for future Chinese missions, and the Artemis program that will bring back humans to the Moon. What’s exciting about the area is the presence of water ice in permanently shaded craters. Water is a very precious resource.
Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14 and got around the Moon on August 5. This is ISRO’s third successful orbital insertion after the previous Chandrayaan missions. Now they are planning the release of the probe that will touch down. It is not easy to stick the landing on the Moon. The system that will go down to the surface will consist of a lander and a rover.
While it has failed to land on the Moon before, ISRO has a good track record in exploration, demonstrating orbital insertion around both our natural satellite and around Mars, where the Mangalayaan mission returned spectacular images of the Red Planet. ISRO’s approach is also fairly low-cost. Chandrayaan-3 had a budget of $74.6 million.
Luna 25 is a whole other kettle of fish. It is the not-so-direct successor of Luna 24, a sample return mission that took place in 1976, when the mission was under the banner of the Soviet Union. Luna 25 was first proposed in the 1990s, and was changed and delayed by the failure of the Phobos-Grunt mission, as well as failed attempts to collaborate with the Japanese Space Agency and ISRO.
Collaboration with other international partners was also terminated following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. These facts had many people doubting that the mission would ever fly, but Russia announced this week that it will indeed launch. The liftoff window starts on August 10 at 11:10 pm UTC from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. It is expected to travel for 5 days toward the Moon and then spend up to a week in orbit before the lander goes down to the surface.
If the plan is executed to the letter, this might just put Russia slightly ahead in the landing race. It’s feasible that they could make their landing on August 23, pipping India’s mission to the post.
But the goal is not getting there first, it is getting there in one piece. Landing is always treacherous. We will find out in the next few days how the race develops.
Source Link: What Are The Chances Russia And India Land On The Moon At The Same Time This Month?