In this picture handed out by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, a Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat higher stage and lunar touchdown spacecraft Luna-25, blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far jap Amur area in Russia, on August 11, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Roscosmos by way of Reuters
Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, which launched the Luna-25 on Friday, has stated that its touchdown on the moon wouldn’t impede India’s Chandrayaan-3, which was launched on July 14, 2023, as the two missions had completely different touchdown areas and there was enough space on the Moon for everybody.
Luna-25 was launched from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport in the nation’s Far East area on August 11, 2023. Its lunar lander is anticipated to succeed in the moon on August 23, the identical day on which Chandrayaan-3 is anticipated to land on the lunar floor too.
Follow Chandrayaan-3’s progress right here
“Luna-25 and Chandrayaan-3 have different landing areas planned. There is no danger that they will hamper each other’s functions or collide. There is enough space on the Moon for everyone. Luna-25 is static, it will not move on the surface of the Moon,” Ilya Morozov, Center of inner and exterior communications, State Corporation Roscosmos, advised The Hindu.
Mr. Morozov stated that Luna-25’s touchdown on the Moon would happen in a number of phases.
“Launching Luna-25 onto the flight trajectory to the Moon will take 1 hour and 20 minutes. The duration of the flight from Earth to the Moon is five days. Stay in lunar orbit — from five to seven days, depending on the landing area. Three areas were selected for the lunar landing: the main one — to the north of the Boguslavsky crater and two reserve ones — to the south of the Manzinus crater and to the south of the Pentland-A crater,” Mr. Morozov stated.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to have the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover contact down close to the lunar south pole area at 5.47 p.m. on August 23.
According to the ISRO, there have been six lively lunar orbiters as of July 2023.
“Currently, the only operating rover is China’s Yutu-2 rover released by Chang’e 4, which operates on the far side. From the available media sources, it is expected that Luna-25 of Russia with a lander and rover will be in a lunar orbit of 100 km by August 16, 2023, and will be landing on the south pole of the moon by August 21-23, 2023,” ISRO stated on August 9.
Also learn | What it takes to soft-land on the moon
Roscosmos stated that it has had no interplay with the ISRO on the Luna-25 mission.
However, it stated that it is open to India’s participation in the International Scientific Lunar Station (ILRS) and likewise exploring the risk of putting a Russian scientific payload on future Indian lunar exploration missions.
“There is no interaction with ISRO on the Luna-25 project. At the same time, the Russian side is open to cooperation on the participation of the Indian side in implementing the project of the International Scientific Lunar Station. Moreover, we are ready to consider the possibility of placing a Russian scientific payload on future Indian lunar exploration missions,” Mr Morozov stated.
The ILRS is a deliberate lunar base at present persuaded by Roscosmos and the Chinese space agency.
