Post by Odysseus on Aug 22, 2023 2:42:27 GMT
Russia says its Luna 25 spacecraft has crashed into the surface of the Moon during preparations to attempt a landing at the lunar south pole. “It’s hugely disappointing,” says Simeon Barber, a planetary scientist at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK. “It highlights that landing on the moon is not easy.” ...
If Luna 25 had landed successfully, the spacecraft would have used various instruments including a robotic arm to dig up to 50 centimetres into the lunar surface in search of water ice — thought to be abundant at the Moon’s south pole and a potential resource for future missions.
The stationary lander was designed to last for up to 12 months on the surface, which could have revealed possible changes in “frost on the surface of the Moon”, says Barber, who was part of a European collaboration with Russia on lunar missions that ended last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “We do think there is an active water cycle on the Moon today, with water molecules being trapped in cold places.” ...
But on 19 August, the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced on the social media network Telegram that “communication with the Luna-25 spacecraft was interrupted”, after an impulse command was sent to the spacecraft to lower its orbit around the Moon. Attempts to contact the spacecraft on 20 August were unsuccessful, leading Roscosmos to determine that Luna 25 had “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface”. ...
Searching for ice
If Luna 25 had landed successfully, the spacecraft would have used various instruments including a robotic arm to dig up to 50 centimetres into the lunar surface in search of water ice — thought to be abundant at the Moon’s south pole and a potential resource for future missions.
The stationary lander was designed to last for up to 12 months on the surface, which could have revealed possible changes in “frost on the surface of the Moon”, says Barber, who was part of a European collaboration with Russia on lunar missions that ended last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “We do think there is an active water cycle on the Moon today, with water molecules being trapped in cold places.” ...
