An image taken from the digicam of the lunar touchdown spacecraft Luna-25 reveals the Zeeman crater positioned on the far aspect of the moon, on August 17, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
An “abnormal situation” occurred at Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft on August 20 because it was making ready to switch to its pre-landing orbit, Russia’s nationwide space agency Roskosmos stated.
The Russian spacecraft is scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon on August 22, a part of a giant energy race to discover part of the moon which scientists suppose might maintain frozen water and valuable parts.
“During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the manoeuvre to be performed with the specified parameters,” Roskosmos stated in a brief assertion.
Specialists are analysing the scenario, it stated, with out offering additional particulars.
Earlier, Roskosmos stated it had obtained the primary outcomes from the Luna-25 mission and that they had been being analysed.
The agency additionally posted pictures of the moon’s Zeeman crater taken from the spacecraft. The crater is the third deepest within the moon’s southern hemisphere, it stated, measuring 190 km (118 miles) in diameter and eight km (5 miles) in depth.
Roskosmos stated knowledge it had obtained up to now had supplied details about the chemical parts within the lunar soil and would additionally facilitate the operation of units designed to review the near-surface of the moon.
It added that its gear had registered “the event of a micrometeorite impact”.
The Luna-25 entered the moon’s orbit on August 16 , the primary Russian spacecraft to take action since 1976.
Roughly the scale of a small automobile, it’ll intention to function for a 12 months on the South Pole, the place scientists at NASA and different space companies lately have detected traces of frozen water within the craters.
The presence of water has implications for main space powers, probably permitting longer human sojourns on the moon that might allow the mining of lunar sources.
