Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Luna-27 landing leg testing.
Image credit: NPO Lavochkin

Work on future robotic moon projects is pressing forward, recently highlighted by NPO Lavochkin in spotlighting work on Luna-27.

Lavochkin has completed development tests of a dynamically similar model of the landing vehicle for the Luna-27 mission, a south pole lander slated for launch after 2030.

Image credit: Roscosmos

Test stands

“This is one of the important stages of preparation for the upcoming lunar expedition, during which specialists worked out soft landing modes in conditions as close to real ones as possible,” reports a Lavochkin posting.

Artwork depiction of Luna-27 Moon lander.
Image credit: NPO Lavochkin

The device was also tested with a simulation of lunar gravity and contact with an analogue soil.

Lavochkin has created specialized stands to practice Moon landing modes. Last year, the stands were upgraded to meet the landing conditions of the Luna-27 spacecraft.

Lunar orbiter

Luna-27 is being developed as part of the Luna-Resource-1 project.

The first mission of the project is Luna-26 that will explore the surface from lunar orbit and select safe landing sites. To be launched in 2027, the lunar orbiter would create a topographic map of the Moon with a resolution of 2-3 meters in the southern polar region using stereo photography.

Russia’s Luna-26, a Moon orbiter.
Image credit: NPO Lavochkin

The second mission is the Luna-27 landing module itself. Its task is to study the composition of the regolith, record the presence of water, and measure the physical characteristics of the soil.

Luna-25 mishap

As part of the Luna-Glob project, NPO Lavochkin built the Luna-25 spacecraft, a small-sized demonstration landing station for testing basic soft landing technologies in the near-polar region and conducting contact studies of the south pole of the Moon.

Luna-25
Credit: Roscosmos

After Luna-25’s launch on August 10, 2023, the craft did enter lunar orbit. However, a maneuvering engine on the craft overshot its burn time, running for 127 seconds instead of 84 second. Subsequently, Luna-25 crashed onto the lunar surface on August 19, 2023.

During preparations for descent to the surface, Russia’s Luna-25 Moon lander experienced an anomaly that caused it to impact into the southwest rim of Pontécoulant G crater on Aug. 19, 2023.
Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University