By 
May 21st, 2021
Credit: Roscosmos/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Russia’s robotic return to the Moon is being readied under the framework of the Luna-Glob project. The last in the row of the former Soviet Union’s lunar missions was Luna 24 – a sample return mission in 1976.
The Luna-25 spacecraft is a small demonstration landing station for testing basic soft landing technologies in the circumpolar region and conducting contact studies of the Moon’s South Pole.
Credit: Roscosmos/Inside Outer Space screengrab
When Luna-25 lands on the Moon, it will image the terrain with a European Space Agency (ESA) Pilot-D camera built specifically for landing. The data collected by this camera will be used to prepare for ESA’s next challenge: landing on the Moon with high-precision and avoiding hazards using European technology.
NPO Lavochkin is fully engaged in preparing Luna-25 for launch in the October-November 2021 time frame. Lobbing the craft moonward will be a Soyuz-2/1b booster with a Fregat upper stage.
Credit: Roscosmos/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Main tasks
The main tasks of Luna-25 is to develop soft landing technology; study the internal structure and exploration of natural resources, including water, in the circumpolar region of the Moon; and investigate the effects of cosmic rays and electromagnetic radiation on the lunar surface.
But there’s another set of results Russia’s reintroduction of lunar exploration:
- Luna-Glob project seeks to confirm the technological status of Russia as a state with the capability to deliver payloads to the Moon;
- To create a technological groundwork for the implementation of subsequent lunar missions;
- To provide guaranteed access for Russia to the lunar surface;
- Start exploring the moon with a new quality;
- For the first time in the world, start researching the lunar soil in the South Pole area.
Credit: Roscosmos/Inside Outer Space screengrab
As noted by the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI RAS), there are follow-on Russian Moon missions on the books: Luna-26 (or Luna-Resurs-Orbiter), an orbital mission to study Moon from low polar orbit. Luna-27 would be a landing mission (or Luna-Resurs-Lander), designed to study lunar regolith on-the-spot. ESA is working on a drill and a sampling device for this spacecraft.
Russia’s Luna-26 orbiter.
Credit: IKI
Once on the surface of the Moon, Luna-27 will deploy the European Prospect drill that will search for water ice and other chemicals under the surface, together with another Russian instrument. Operating at temperatures of –150 °C and drilling over one meter down, Prospect first needs to penetrate the frozen surface.
The next step after the first three missions is flying a Lunar Polar Sample Return craft (LPSR, or Luna-Grunt) to study polar samples in laboratories here on Earth. Several technological issues are to be solved, such as cryogenic delivery of the Moon’s permafrost from the poles.
A recently issued Roscosmos video (in Russian) shows the testing and preparations underway for Luna-25.
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