Interplanetary station "Luna-25" on the Earth's satellite was launched by Russia, 50 years later
The Luna-25 automatic interplanetary station was put on a suborbital trajectory by a “Soyuz-2.1b” rocket launched on Friday from the Vostochny cosmodrome. Almost half a century later, Russian cosmonautics is heading for the moon again. In 5.5 days, the device will make a soft landing in the area of the Southern Pole on the natural satellite of the Earth, RIA Novosti reports.
The last time an automatic station was sent there 47 years ago by the Soviet Union in 1976. The purpose of the Luna-24 mission was to deliver samples of lunar soil from space, in which scientists discovered water. This was sensational proof that there is water on the Earth's satellite.
The Luna-25 device will land on the moon where no one has landed yet and will help in studying the internal structure of the satellite, and will also explore natural resources, primarily water. In addition, scientists plan to investigate the impact on the surface of cosmic rays and electromagnetic radiation.
On the Moon, due to the absence of an atmosphere, water is not able to collect in puddles, but can only accumulate in the form of ice, which, according to scientists, lies in the shadow of craters. In these places the temperature reaches minus 150 Celsius.
“And water, when broken down into its components, is the best rocket fuel. oxygen and hydrogen. Not to take it to the earth, but to use it in space. But this will be needed when the entire infrastructure is built,” Ivan Moiseev, head of the Space Policy Institute said.
The lunar mission will take place in three stages - the first, the current one, will last a year. During this time, the soft landing technology, autonomous navigation, communications and data transmission system will be worked out. All this will be useful to astronauts who will already be settling on the Moon and will arrive in the second phase of the program. They will search for water for space fuel. The third stage of the project is the construction of the base and the necessary infrastructure.
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