Moon Landers (Non-SpaceX) - General Discussion

[ecarfan]

Is Luna 25 alive? Russia says an “emergency situation” has occurred Ars Technica reports.

In a terse update posted on the social media network Telegram Saturday, the Russian space corporation Roscosmos said that an "emergency situation" had occurred on board its Luna 25 spacecraft.

The 1.2-ton lunar lander entered orbit around the Moon three days ago, and since that time Russian engineers have been sending commands for small engine burns to correct the spacecraft's orbit. Roscosmos sent another of these commands on Saturday to put Luna 25 into a "pre-landing orbit," ahead of a landing that had been due to occur as soon as Monday.

However, during the maneuver at 14:10 Moscow time (11:10 UTC) on Saturday a problem occurred, which did not allow the operation to be carried out successfully. "The management team is currently analyzing the situation," concluded the short statement from Roscosmos.

Does not sound good. Solving the issue is made more difficult by the fact that Russia does not have a deep space communications network and can only contact the lander when the Moon is visible from Russia (I assume Western Russia, the country spans 11 time zones).

 

[VIKING26]

I’m typically Team Space, but for some reason I don’t care if they lost it. I don’t know if it’s because of the war or Dmitry Rogozin’s, CEO of Roscosmos, broomstick comment. I’m sure there are a lot of great people who worked on the project that I should care but I just can’t.

 

[scaesare]

It's been reported that it's crashed in to the Moon.

 

[ecarfan]

Reuters: Russia's first lunar mission in 47 years smashes into the moon in failure

Huge embarrassment for Russia.

schadenfreude

shäd′n-froi″də

noun​

1. Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.
2. Malicious enjoyment derived from observing someone else's misfortune.
3. Delight in another person's misfortune.

 

[zoomer0056]

Reuters: Russia's first lunar mission in 47 years smashes into the moon in failure

Huge embarrassment for Russia.

Color me schadenfreude.

 

[ecarfan]

I feel bad for the many smart Russian scientists and engineers who labored for years with limited funding and support to make Luna 25 a reality. I’m sure they did their best.

I do not have the same emotions when thinking about the Russian government and its leaders.

 

[ecarfan]

In a statement, Roscosmos said that the lander:

"ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon"

That sneaky Moon, it just moved suddenly and rammed our spacecraft! The nerve…

India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will attempt to land this Wednesday, August 23rd. I wish that team all the best!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66541956

https://twitter.com/x/status/1692995757413192015

 

[Electroman]

Reuters: Russia's first lunar mission in 47 years smashes into the moon in failure

Huge embarrassment for Russia.

It is upsetting and frustrating for the Russians, sure.. but embarrassment..? No.

Russia space agency works on their own in isolation with no collaboration with other developed nations for a fraction of the budget NASA gets.

 

[scaesare]

An Enagadget article on it:
Luna 25

Nothing groundbreaking there.

(On Edit: Corrected reference. Thanks @ecarfan )

 

[ecarfan]

The ArsTechnica article on it:
Luna 25

Nothing groundbreaking there.

The article you linked to is not on Ars. Here is your link:

Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft crashes into the Moon | Engadget

 

[scaesare]

The article you linked to is not on Ars. Here is your link:

Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft crashes into the Moon | Engadget

Whoops my bad. Thanks.

 

[JB47394]

Given the way the Russian government has been behaving in public for the past few years, I'm surprised that Roscosmos came right out and said "It crashed". I realize that observers are going to spot the absence of signals from the spacecraft, but the administration seems to put absurd spins on everything that goes wrong (and social media has been having malicious fun projecting various reports that might come from the Kremlin). I suspect that the Roscomos guys aren't on Team Putin and are looking forward to days of normalized relations with the rest of the world. In other words, they're trying to carry on as professionals, despite the crap they're taking on social media because they're in Russia.

 

[ecarfan]

It is upsetting and frustrating for the Russians, sure.. but embarrassment..? No.

Russia space agency works on their own in isolation with no collaboration with other developed nations for a fraction of the budget NASA gets.

“Russia spacecraft crashes into Moon” is global headline news. I’m pretty sure that Russian government leaders and Roscosmos finds that embarrassing and frankly humiliating. Russia does not exist in a bubble. It boasted about going back to the Moon with Luna 25 — the mission was as much about PR as the science — and now it can only pretend to ignore its failure.

Roscosmos collaborates with NASA on the ISS and is continuing to do so. It does not work in isolation from everyone. It is now launching a fraction of the missions it used to and it is keenly aware of that.

 

[ecarfan]

Reuters: Race for moon resources has begun, says Russia's space chief after failed lunar mission

Roskosmos chief Yury Borisov, looking downbeat during an interview with the Russia-24 state TV station, said it was in Russia's vital national interests to remain committed to lunar exploration.

"This is not just about the prestige of the country and the achievement of some geopolitical goals. This is about ensuring defensive capabilities and achieving technological sovereignty," he said in his first public comments after the aborted mission.

So Luna 25 was about prestige, geopolitical power, military defense, and showing off Russian technology. If failed. Borisov is not a happy man right now.

The reality is that it will be many years before Russia is able to launch Luna 26 and try to erase the loss of Luna 25.

 

[ecarfan]

Eric Berger: The failure of Luna 25 cements Putin’s role as a disastrous space leader

…unlike NASA, China, India, and several companies in the United States and Japan, the Luna 25 effort does not presage the coming of a golden era of exploration for Russia. Rather, it is more properly seen as the last gasp of a dying empire, an attempt by the modern state of Russia, and President Vladimir Putin, to revive old glories.

And now it has failed. Here's why this is such a death knell for Russia's civil space program under Putin's leadership.

He then reviews how Russia is using hardware that is many, many decades old, and has nothing new in actual development; almost everything it talks about is really just vaporware.

Before the launch of Luna 25, Putin made it clear that this mission was important for Russia as a signal that the country was returning to great power status. He met with the current head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, on June 30 before the launch to hear more about the lunar mission.

The symbolism of the Russian space program is important to the nation, as achieving "firsts" such as the first satellite, man, and woman in orbit six decades ago marked key geopolitical wins for the Soviet Union during the Cold War against the United States. Since then, Russians have expected their country to be doing important things in space.

He closes with an analysis of the sad state of the Russian space program as it stands now, with budgets declining and scientists and engineers being paid pittances.

 

[Electroman]

He closes with an analysis of the sad state of the Russian space program as it stands now, with budgets declining and scientists and engineers being paid pittances.

You need look at your comments within the context of this last sentence in your post.

 

[iPlug]

Congrats to India for successfully achieving their soft landing on the south pole of the moon today.

 

[ecarfan]

Impressive accomplishment by ISRO!

Video of the livestream of the landing

For some reason that video didn’t show an image from the lander after touchdown but I’m sure images will be available.

 

[Electroman]

ISRO posted this on their Twitter thread:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1694376945340080398

Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The image captured by the Landing Imager Camera after the landing. It shows a portion of Chandrayaan-3's landing site. Seen also is a leg and its accompanying shadow. Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface

 

[Electroman]

I was watching the live telecast in which they were showing the telemetry and an animation which supposedly mimics the attitude and thrusters firing based on the telemetry they receive.

Upto descending to 450 meters altitude the animation dot matched exactly with the predicted line, and the horizontally velocity was then reduced to close to 0. But then as it continued descending, it started to increase its speed sideways again. For a moment I thought this was a malfunction and going to crash, but turned out the last phase is designed to move around and look for a good landing spot while almost hovering.