Russia is reportedly planning a new series of missions to the Moon. Known as Luna 25, the first mission will launch in October this year. It will also mark Russia’s first Moon landing after 45 years.
“The moon is the center of our program for the next decade,” said Lev Zelenyi, scientific advisor for the Russian Space Research Institute during a virtual presentation. The Russian space agency has mapped out several ambitious lunar exploration missions, putting it in straight competition with the US, which is planning a manned mission to the Moon with its Artemis program.
The Luna 25 mission aims to study ice permanently frozen below the Moon’s surface, which can be harnessed as a resource for future explorers. The mission will also evaluate the dangers posed by sharp fragments of lunar dust. The spacecraft will leverage an advanced camera that will also feature in ESA’s future missions.
Zelenyi emphasized that Luna 25 is only the beginning, and a total of five lunar missions are under planning stages. By 2023 or 2024, Russia plans to launch Luna 26 that will study magnetic and gravitational anomalies in the Moon. It will also capture images of the landing sites.
Later in 2025, the space agency will launch Luna 27, which as per Zelenyi is “the most important.” The mission will target the south pole of the Moon and carry European landing software. Besides, the lander will ferry equipment required to study how the solar wind coming from the sun affects the lunar surface.
The final two missions don’t have a specific launch date yet. But Luna 28 would bring back cryogenically stored samples from the Moon’s south pole that would retain water ice and volatile compounds. “It’s sample return, but a different sample return than has been done earlier,” Zelenyi said. “It will be … not just regolith [lunar dirt] but all volatiles and cryogenic inclusions to it, which is technically challenging.”
