Luna 25 lander mission, Russian lander following on from the Soviet-era lunar program Options

[Phil Stooke]

I am starting a new thread for this mission which should fly this year.

Phil

[Thorsten Denk]

Launch is to my knowledge on July 22, 23:21:45 UTC.
Arrival at the lunar orbit on July 28.

Thorsten

[kymani76]

Two possible landing ellipses for Luna 25 from Hiesinger et al..

[Paolo]

my photo of a model of Luna 25 on top of its Fregat stage
https://flic.kr/p/2ggQAdM

[Phil Stooke]

https://selena.sai.msu.ru/Rod/Publications/...sites_final.pdf

Paolo's reference to the landing sites is quite old, and the sites have now moved out of Bugaevsky crater to the north. This link is to a paper about mapping the landing sites for hazards. Ellipse 6 in this paper is the primary site, just north of the crater. Meanwhile, the Chandrayaan 3 site seems to be in the southern floor of Bugaevsky very near the old Luna 25 ellipses.

Phil

[kymani76]

Phil it is my fault, not Paolo's. I dug into the matter deeper and in addition to Phil's article also found this paper.
The list of sites is almost the same between the 2 sources, one lists 11 sites, the other has 12 (apparently old Boguslawsky crater site), one has coordinates down to 3 decimals, the other rounds it up to 2.
These ellipses were meant for 2019 or 2020 landings so they might have changed further since the papers were published.
I couldn't find much on Chandrayaan 3 site, but what i found says the plan to land at more or less same spot as at the last attempt.
Here is update map with ellipse 6 marked as landing spot:

[Phil Stooke]

Yes, sorry, Paolo, I should have known better.

Phil

[Paolo]

Yes, sorry, Paolo,

no problem

[Huguet]

Russia sets date for historic space mission
“Taking into consideration the astronomical ‘window,’ the launch of ‘Luna-25’ spacecraft is planned for 13.07.2023.”

We got a new date.

https://www.rt.com/russia/571964-roscosmos-...-lunar-mission/

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Phil Stooke]

If this mission lands successfully it is supposed to operate for about a year. During the first lunar day it will study its landing site with various remote sensing instruments and map its workspace. On each subsequent lunar day its arm will collect a sample from the workspace and deliver it to analytical instruments inside the spacecraft. Samples from different locations and depths will explore the variations in volatile content (and basic mineral composition) in the workspace.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

https://twitter.com/katlinegrey/status/1663597591613919233

A one month delay. Now it is possible that Luna 25 and Chandrayaan 3 will land at almost the same date and only about 100 km apart.

Phil

[Holder of the Tw...]

Rumor has it that the launch will occur August 11th, just a few more days.

Update: 23:10 pm GMT on August 10th (which is August 11th Moscow time).

Launch on a Soyuz with a Fregat upper stage from Vostochny Cosmodrome.

This according to a Russian news agency, not otherwise confirmed.

[nogal]

Anyone wanting to see the launch can do so via the YouTube channel of Roscosmos at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgi2pIFrnW4

As I post this it will be live in about 70 minutes.

Luna 25's landing site seems to be the Boguslawsky crater, which is centered on 72.9°S 43.2°E. Source: Wikipedia page on Luna 25

Fernando

[Phil Stooke]

Wikipedia is a bit out of date on that point. The current target is north of the crater, not in it.

This map shows a large set of ellipses considered for the mission and the three ellipses preferred, with number 6 actually being the target. a white outline inside the ellipse is the most hazard-free region which will presumably form the actual target within the ellipse.

Phil

[nprev]

Successfully launched into parking orbit. There will apparently be two burns required for translunar injection, but live coverage seems to have ended.