The first Russian mission to the Moon in almost 50 years crashed into the terrestrial satellite after an incidentwhich is a fiasco for a Russian space program.
‘Luna-25’, the first probe launched by Russia to the Moon since 1976, crashed into the lunar surface after a problem occurred on Saturday during a maneuver prior to its landing, the Roscosmos space agency announced on Sunday.
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“The measures taken on August 19 and 20 to search for the device and make contact with it did not work,” the agency acknowledged.
“According to the preliminary results” of the investigation, the device “ceased to exist after a collision on the lunar surface,” he added.
Roscosmos indicated that “an inter-ministerial commission” will be in charge of finding out what led to this result, although the agency
Russian did not go into details about the circumstances of the incident, according to the results of the preliminary analysis, the reason for the accident was “the deviation from the actual parameters of impulse” previously calculated.
‘Luna-25’ was put into lunar orbit on Wednesday, after taking off in the early hours of August 11 from the Russian Far East.
In principle, it was supposed to land on the moon on Monday at the south pole of the earth’s satellite, a first step that would set a precedent in the new space race.
His mission to the Moon, which was to last a year, was to collect samples and analyze the soil for “long-term scientific research.”
But the probe was only able to send several images of the lunar surface – the Zeeman crater, 184 kilometers in diameter -, carry out some measurements and scientific experiments, and record the impact of a micrometeorite against the Moon.
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This paves the way to be the Indian probe Chandrayaan-3 -which successfully carried out the approach maneuver this morning- the one that reaches that inhospitable territory of the Moon for the first time before traditional powers such as Russia, the United States and China.
Loss of international collaboration
The Luna-25 mission was meant to give a new impetus to the Russian space sector, despite being considered “risky”, as Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov himself had previously admitted.
Faced with Vladimir Putin, last June, Borisov declared that “the chances of success of these missions are estimated at 70%.”
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Added to these natural difficulties is the conflict in Ukraine, which made it difficult for Russia to collaborate with other agencies.
After the start of the Russian military offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, the European Space Agency (ESA) stopped collaborating with Moscow in the launch of Luna-25 and future missions 26 and 27.
The space race has intensified in recent years with the new ambitions of China and South Korea that aspire to rival the United States and the growing weight of the private sector.
Additionally, Moscow faces numerous difficulties such as lack of financing, corruption scandals and insufficient technological innovation.
DIGITAL SCOPE WRITING
WITH INFORMATION FROM AFP AND EFE
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