An "abnormal situation" occurred at Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft on Saturday as it was preparing to transfer to its pre-landing orbit, Russia's national space agency Roskosmos said.
It was never going to make the landing. The landing camera (ESA’s PILOT-D) was pulled (along w Sweden’s LINA-XSAN science mission) due to Russia’s war on Ukraine. This satellite was always going to be DOA.
They just launched it for political points, so it’s likely that blaming failure on a micro-meteorite en route is a ploy to save face.
Here’s a couple articles and quotes (guess they were from only a week ago):
Simply reaching the moon without incident will be considered a success.
…
Sanctions since 2014 and 2022 have hobbled the Russian space programme, cutting it off from western technology and funding. The launch in 2019 was delayed because a landing radar that Roscosmos planned to import from the west was no longer available after 2014, Egorov said. After attempting to manufacture the radar domestically, Roscosmos determined that it was unnecessary for the mission.
Tougher sanctions since 2022 will likely increase shortages for years to come, meaning that even if Russia is successful this time, it may not be able to repeat that mission or launch further probes without manufacturing its own alternatives.
“Study of the moon is not the goal,” Egorov said. “The goal is political competition between two superpowers – China and the USA – and a number of other countries which also want to claim the title of space superpower.”
A long road to the launch pad
It took longer than expected for Luna-25 to get off the ground; its liftoff was delayed for nearly two years.
One major countdown-delaying issue was sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022. The European Space Agency (ESA) had been set to provide the Pilot-D navigation camera, built specifically to help Luna-25 make a precision landing on the moon. Due to the invasion, however, ESA canceled the camera cooperation, along with a number of other collaborative space projects.
But getting Luna-25 on its way to the moon remained a priority, one highlighted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In an April 2022 visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome, he said the sanctions placed on Russia by the U.S., the European Union and others would not deter the nation from carrying out space exploration.
“Despite all the difficulties and attempts to interfere from the outside, we’re definitely going to implement all our plans with consistency and persistence,” Putin said.
My point is: yes, they shot an old go-pro tied to a dreidel up there to prove they could shoot something, but we screw up space more often, this is one specific and limited area where we really shouldn’t throw too many stones.
But, if you want to make fun of their shitty ISS modules, go have fun with that!
The wikipedia page on the Luna-25 mission has sources referenced on the removed parts under the “science payload” section here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_25
There were some articles discussing it and Russia’s thinking prior to launch in going ahead without them. They said they’d count just getting to the moon as a success even if the landing failed, but you kind of had to read between the lines a little bit. Not having a landing camera was a big give away. They’d essentially decided they weren’t going to get that back due to the whole situation they put themselves in.
I’d have to try a bit more to find one of those articles from a few weeks ago. They’re buried under more current references to the mission at this point.
ESA’s PILOT-D navigation demonstration camera was planned to be flown on this mission, but is already being procured from a commercial service provider and will fly along with them on their mission,[27] due to continued international collaboration having been thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia.[28][29] The demonstrative instrument was supposed to collect data for the landing of other missions and was therefore not part of the probe’s operating system.[30]
Doesn’t sound like it was a critical part of the mission.
Hopefully they can land without it, provided they can recover from this current mishap. Any success in space is good for science.
Supposedly they have another landing instrument, though I suspect the camera was somewhat important for selecting a landing site. The Doppler speed and range meter is discussed briefly here:
According to the original plan, Luna 25 was supposed to be launched in 2014. However, various reasons provoked delays one after another. The last big postponement (from 2021 to 2023) was caused by the malfunction detected in the Doppler speed and range meter (DISD-LR) during the tests. Being an important part of the soft landing system, this device couldn’t be ignored, and its insufficient accuracy may cost a mission. The repeated tests of DISD-LR and subsequent changes of the lander’s software caused a delay for almost two years.
Exactly. Would be a shame if it goes to waste.
But it sure seems pretty doomed.
“During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the manoeuvre to be performed with the specified parameters,” Roskosmos said in a short statement.
It was never going to make the landing. The landing camera (ESA’s PILOT-D) was pulled (along w Sweden’s LINA-XSAN science mission) due to Russia’s war on Ukraine. This satellite was always going to be DOA.
They just launched it for political points, so it’s likely that blaming failure on a micro-meteorite en route is a ploy to save face.
Sauce?
Here’s a couple articles and quotes (guess they were from only a week ago):
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/10/russia-lunar-landing-mission-luna-25-moon
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/10/russia-to-launch-its-first-mission-to-the-moon-in-nearly-50-years
https://www.space.com/russia-luna-25-moon-mission-launch-success
Ok, I’m REALLY not trying in any way to defend the monstrous, murderous, invading pieces of shit:
But JWST was like 1.5 decades late, I was waiting for it since the early 2000s: https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-budget-timeline-scale
My point is: yes, they shot an old go-pro tied to a dreidel up there to prove they could shoot something, but we screw up space more often, this is one specific and limited area where we really shouldn’t throw too many stones.
But, if you want to make fun of their shitty ISS modules, go have fun with that!
The difference is JWST works flawlessly despite (or because?) those delay and ballooning budget, while the Luna-25 probably won’t survive the landing.
Lol.
Launching an impactor to the moon is no longer “space superpower” stuff nowadays.
The wikipedia page on the Luna-25 mission has sources referenced on the removed parts under the “science payload” section here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_25
There were some articles discussing it and Russia’s thinking prior to launch in going ahead without them. They said they’d count just getting to the moon as a success even if the landing failed, but you kind of had to read between the lines a little bit. Not having a landing camera was a big give away. They’d essentially decided they weren’t going to get that back due to the whole situation they put themselves in.
I’d have to try a bit more to find one of those articles from a few weeks ago. They’re buried under more current references to the mission at this point.
Thanks!
Doesn’t sound like it was a critical part of the mission.
Hopefully they can land without it, provided they can recover from this current mishap. Any success in space is good for science.
Supposedly they have another landing instrument, though I suspect the camera was somewhat important for selecting a landing site. The Doppler speed and range meter is discussed briefly here:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/08/luna-25-mission-launch/
It didn’t make it.
Exactly. Would be a shame if it goes to waste. But it sure seems pretty doomed.
Monday will bring some answers.
/edit Nevermind. It’s gone