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.
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.
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