Unmanned Lunar Missions

[Sandhi Yudha]

Luna 25 had been scheduled to lift off in September this year, but once again the launch date is moved backwards.

Reportedly, a speed and distance sensor that will help the lander make a safe and soft landing on the moon underperformed during testing, leading to the delay from last month into 2023.

Luna 25 will be the first mission in modern Russian history to head for the moon, but the program is delayed for countless times, maybe even more than ten times. The Luna-Glob program is based on plans dating back to 1997. Due to the 1998 Russian financial crisis however, the programme's first mission, the Luna 25 lander, was put on hold, only to be revived a few years later. Initially scheduled for launch in 2012, then rescheduled to 2014, then to 2015, to 2016, 2018 and 2019.

The last reschedules are from last year to May to August and then September 2022 — and now July 2023. So this is a never ending story of delays and setbacks for this cursed program.

Russia delays launch of Luna 25 moon lander to 2023

Luna 25 had been scheduled to lift off this month.

www.space.com

Russia’s first lunar mission postponed to 2023 — Roscosmos

The project is targeted to the south polar region of the Moon

tass.com

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

After a nearly two-week delay, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched ispace’s small Hakuto-R M1 lunar lander toward the Moon.

Liftoff took place on 2022-12-11 7:38 UTC from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This Hakuto-R mission one aims to lay the groundwork for future transportation. A second mission, is planned for 2024.

ispace

Ispace is a private lunar robotic exploration company that is developing micro-robotic technology to provide a low-cost and frequent transportation service to and on the Moon, conduct lunar surface exploration to map, process and deliver resources to our customers in cislunar space.

ispace-inc.com

On board is the United Arab Emirates’ Rashid Moon Rover. The Rashid rover - built by Emirati engineers from the UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) - is to be sent to regions of the Moon unexplored by humans.

It marks the UAE’s first Moon mission, with more rovers to be developed in the future.

 

[ngatimozart]

After a nearly two-week delay, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched ispace’s small Hakuto-R M1 lunar lander toward the Moon.

Liftoff took place on 2022-12-11 7:38 UTC from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

This Hakuto-R mission one aims to lay the groundwork for future transportation. A second mission, is planned for 2024.

ispace

Ispace is a private lunar robotic exploration company that is developing micro-robotic technology to provide a low-cost and frequent transportation service to and on the Moon, conduct lunar surface exploration to map, process and deliver resources to our customers in cislunar space.

ispace-inc.com

On board is the United Arab Emirates’ Rashid Moon Rover. The Rashid rover - built by Emirati engineers from the UAE’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) - is to be sent to regions of the Moon unexplored by humans.

It marks the UAE’s first Moon mission, with more rovers to be developed in the future.

It'll soon be getting crowed on the moon. We might have to send parking wardens up there

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Chandrayaan-3, India's latest Moon mission (consisting of an orbiter, lander and a rover), has entered the lunar orbit.
The spacecraft lifted off on 14 July, and it is planned to set the lander and rover on the lunar surface on 23 or 24 August.

If successful, India will be the first country to land near the Moon's little-explored south pole.

Chandrayaan-3: Historic India mission enters Moon orbit, aiming for south pole

If Chandrayaan-3 succeeds, India will be the first country to land near the Moon's little-explored south pole.

www.bbc.com

And Russia has once again postponed the launch of the robotic Luna 25 lander from 13 July, and will now lift off no earlier than August.

Well, we will see if this month the launch will be moved backwards again.

Russia delays launch of Luna 25 moon lander until August

The liftoff had been targeted for July 13.

www.space.com

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

At last...after 47 years waiting, Roskosmos has successfully launched a spacecraft to the Moon.

Luna 25 (Luna-Glob) was yesterday (UTC-time) launched with a Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat rocket and it Russia’s first mission to the Moon since the Soviet Luna 24 mission which was launched on 9 August 1976. The robotic lander is scheduled for touchdown north of Boguslawsky crater near the south pole of the Moon on 23 August.
Luna-25 has eight scientific instruments on board including a mechanical arm and bucket that can scoop up lunar regolith.

It is to be expected that Luna 25 will land on the Moon on the same day as the Indian Chandrayaan-3. Chandrayaan-3 already sent the first images of the Moon four days ago.

RFSA - Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M | Luna 25 Rocket Launch

Luna 25 (ex-Luna-Glob) was a lunar lander mission by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) that crashed into the lunar surface after an anomalous orbital maneuver placed it on a collision trajectory towards the Moon. It was scheduled to land near the lunar south pole at the Boguslavsky...

www.spacelaunchschedule.com

Rusland lanceert met succes maanlander Loena-25, eerste in bijna 50 jaar

Loena-25 moet informatie vergaren over de zuidpool van de maan, mogelijk een geschikt gebied voor een ruimtestation.

nos.nl

Russia launches first space mission to Moon in 47 years

The Russian mission is racing against India to be the first country to land on the Moon's south pole.

www.bbc.com

Chandrayaan-3: Historic India Moon mission sends new photos of lunar surface

If Chandrayaan-3 succeeds, India will be the first country to land near the Moon's little-explored south pole.

www.bbc.com

 

[Feanor]

At last...after 47 years waiting, Roskosmos has successfully launched a spacecraft to the Moon.

You just had to jinx it didn't you? It will be successful when it gets to the moon. So far it's in orbit. I'm cautiously optimistic, but let's remember the Phobos-Grunt mission.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Russia’s Luna-25 automatic lunar station (spacecraft/spaceprobe) has entered the orbit of the Moon. The lunar lander is set to enter lunar orbit on August 16 and softly touch down on the Moon’s surface on August 21.

So we will see if the Russians can land the Lunar 25 earlier than the Indian Chandrayaan-3, which is planned to land on the southpole of the Moon on 23 August.

Russia’s Luna-25 lunar probe enters orbit of Earth’s natural satellite — Roscosmos

All of the Luna-25 systems are operating normally and communication with the lunar probe is stable

tass.com

Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft enters lunar orbit

Russia's lunar spacecraft entered the moon's orbit on Wednesday, a major step towards the country's ambition of being the first to land on the moon's south pole in the search for frozen water.

www.reuters.com

 

[Feanor]

Russia’s Luna-25 automatic lunar station (spacecraft/spaceprobe) has entered the orbit of the Moon. The lunar lander is set to enter lunar orbit on August 16 and softly touch down on the Moon’s surface on August 21.

So we will see if the Russians can land the Lunar 25 earlier than the Indian Chandrayaan-3, which is planned to land on the southpole of the Moon on 23 August.

Russia’s Luna-25 lunar probe enters orbit of Earth’s natural satellite — Roscosmos

All of the Luna-25 systems are operating normally and communication with the lunar probe is stable

tass.com

Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft enters lunar orbit

Russia's lunar spacecraft entered the moon's orbit on Wednesday, a major step towards the country's ambition of being the first to land on the moon's south pole in the search for frozen water.

www.reuters.com

I don't think there is any intent to land it early. I think if Russia does this successfully at all it will already be quite the accomplishment.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Text editing in progress.


Updates of Chandrayaan-3 and Luna-Glob/Luna 25.


Chandrayaan-3

Launched on 14 July 2023, Orbit insertion on 5 August 2023, Lander separated from relay satellite on 17 August 2023, first deboosting burn of the lander on 18 August was successful, scheduled to land on 23 August 2023.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1692484515963588645

Luna 25
Launched on 10 August 2023, Orbital insertion on 16 August 2023, orbit correction maneuver performed on 18 August with the Lander planned for landing on 21 August 2023.

Luna-Glob mission lifts off

Luna-Glob mission | Story by Anatoly Zak | Editor: Alain Chabot

www.russianspaceweb.com

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Updates of Chandrayaan-3 and Luna 25.

Chandrayaan-3 has sent black-and-white images showing close-ups of rocks and craters on the Moon's surface. One of the photographs shows the propulsion module too.

Chandrayaan-3: India's lunar lander Vikram sends close-up photos of Moon

The photos are taken by Vikram, Chandrayaan-3's lander, which has begun the last phase of its mission.

www.bbc.com

Also the Luna 25 has sent some interesting photos of the surface of the Moon.

Rusland: maanlander Loena-25 kampt met technisch probleem

Door het euvel kon het ruimtevaartuig een baanmanoeuvre niet goed uitvoeren, wat mogelijk gevolgen heeft voor de landingspoging komende week.

nos.nl

But here it comes.... the pessimistic predictions of Feanor seems to becoming reality...

|"On 19 August, Roskosmos reported that another orbital maneuver had started at 14:10 Moscow Time (7:10 a.m. EDT) to transfer the spacecraft to a "pre-landing orbit", but "during the operation, an emergency situation occurred on board... which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters." According to Roskosmos, the management team was analyzing the situation.

A few hours after the first official announcement about a problem aboard Luna-Glob, an unofficial Telegram channel, Zakryty Kosmos, reported that the spacecraft had broken communications with ground control during the orbit correction but Roskosmos continues its attempts to contact the spacecraft.

Around the same time, another Telegram channel Yura Prosti claimed that a computational error led to the final engine firing to be 1,5 times longer than required and thus resulting in deorbiting and crash of the spacecraft on the Moon."|

Luna-Glob mission lifts off

Luna-Glob mission | Story by Anatoly Zak | Editor: Alain Chabot

www.russianspaceweb.com

Russia’s Luna 25 spacecraft has crashed into the Moon

A stunning loss for the Russian space program.

arstechnica.com

We just have to wait for the official announcement that the Luna-Glob spaceprobe could be saved at the last moment or has become a complete failure.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

New update about the Luna 25, and probably the last...
After an almost continues chain of (partly) failures in the last decades, like Phobos 1, Phobos 2, Mars 96 and Fobos-Grunt, Roskosmos can add another one to this embarrassing list .
Luna 25 is crashed on the Moon, and with this the Luna 25 program, Russia's first mission to the Moon after the Soviet Luna 24 from 47 years ago, has ended in a complete failure.

Once the number 1 pioneer of space exploration, can Roskosmos do anything else than mess it up every time? The only exception was Exomars 2016. Luna 26 and 27 will undoubtedly be delayed with at least 5 years, and after two decades of delays, Venera-D will perhaps land on Venus around 2050.

Luna-Glob mission lifts off

Luna-Glob mission | Story by Anatoly Zak | Editor: Alain Chabot

www.russianspaceweb.com

Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft crashes into Moon

The unmanned craft spun out control before its planned landing on the Moon's south pole.

www.bbc.com

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

Its now official.
Yesterday on 21 August , Yuri Borisov, Director General at Roskosmos blamed an engine failure for the Luna-Glob crash. According to Borisov, the engine fired for 127 seconds instead of planned 84 seconds.

So now some updates about Chandrayaan-3.

Chandrayaan-3: The race to unravel the mysteries of Moon's south pole

India's Chandrayaan-3 has become the first mission to land near the unexplored lunar region.

www.bbc.com

Chandrayaan-3 is now looking for a spot on the southpole of the Moon for a safe landing.

Chandrayaan-3: India's lunar lander Vikram searches for safe Moon landing spot

Day after Luna-25 crash, India space agency says lander trying to find area without boulders or deep trenches.

www.bbc.com

 

[ngatimozart]

As a Kiwi cartoonist saw the Luna 25 RUD.

 

[AndyinOz]

It seems from the coverage online that ISRO had a successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar surface towards the southern pole. No RUD reported this time unlike the Luna 25 from Roscosmos. Definitely a more gentle touchdown than Luna 25 or even Chandrayaan-2 from a few years ago. Quite an achievement for ISRO and all those involved.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

It seems from the coverage online that ISRO had a successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar surface towards the southern pole. No RUD reported this time unlike the Luna 25 from Roscosmos. Definitely a more gentle touchdown than Luna 25 or even Chandrayaan-2 from a few years ago. Quite an achievement for ISRO and all those involved.

Yes you are right, where Luna 25 failed, Chandrayaan-3 succeeded.

India | Latest News & Updates | BBC News

Get all the latest news, live updates and content about India from across the BBC.

www.bbc.com

https://twitter.com/isro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1692484515963588645%7Ctwgr%5E1c2c0e1d80c6f062582d93d63c8c48adc645dc66%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.defencetalk.com%2Fmilitary%2Fforums%2Ft%2Funmanned-lunar-missions.15627%2F

India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lands on Moon

According to an ISRO live broadcast, the spacecraft has successfully completed a soft landing on the Moon’s surface

tass.com

 

[John Fedup]

Yes you are right, where Luna 25 failed, Chandrayaan-3 succeeded.

India | Latest News & Updates | BBC News

Get all the latest news, live updates and content about India from across the BBC.

www.bbc.com

https://twitter.com/isro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1692484515963588645%7Ctwgr%5E1c2c0e1d80c6f062582d93d63c8c48adc645dc66%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.defencetalk.com%2Fmilitary%2Fforums%2Ft%2Funmanned-lunar-missions.15627%2F

India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lands on Moon

According to an ISRO live broadcast, the spacecraft has successfully completed a soft landing on the Moon’s surface

tass.com

I guess we will to wait for the "show me the water" moment.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

I guess we will to wait for the "show me the water" moment.

Who knows, if it's pure H2O, than maybe next decade the crazy rich ones will drink mineral moonwater...
"Imported from the Moon" "Exclusively bottled by ISRO"

 

[Ananda]

Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lands on the moon in 'victory cry of a new India'

An Indian spacecraft became the first to land on the rugged, unexplored south pole of the moon in a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and India's standing as a space power.

www.reuters.com

What India done not only shown they can do something that even Russian fail to do, but do it with the budget fraction from everyone else done (especially compare to NASA ones), on the similar endeavor.

The last one is for me personally is the big thing. India can goes to the market and saying to anyone that want to explore space, 'work with us'. We can give you space in fraction costs from anyone else in the market. Well certainly it is one of the reasons why their satellite delivery services begin to increase in business.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

This H-2A rocket is fully-loaded for launch at the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. It will liftoff at 9:26 in the morning local time (00:26 UTC) carrying a next-generation X-ray space telescope and an experimental lunar lander.

The SLIM, short for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, is a lightweight 700kg spacecraft designed to demonstrate navigation systems for pinpoint lunar landings in rugged lunar terrain. The craft will use a fuel-saving trajectory that takes about four months to reach the Moon.

Launch of new X-ray space telescope and lunar lander from Japan delayed – Spaceflight Now

Here some more information.

JAXA | Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM)

Get information on the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM). The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) performs various activities related to aerospace as an organization, from basic research in the aerospace field to development and utilization.

global.jaxa.jp

JAXA | Today’s Scheduled Launch of the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) and the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) onboard the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 47 (H-IIA F47)

Get information on the Today’s Scheduled Launch of the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) and the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) onboard the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 47 (H-IIA F47) . The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) performs various activities related...

global.jaxa.jp

Edit: planned launch was pushed back/delayed. See post #21 for the actual launch on 7 September.

 

[Sandhi Yudha]

After around 2 weeks, the Indian moonrover is now parked in standby-mode at the southpole of the Moon. The scientist/engineers of ISRO are now processing the sent data.

Chandrayaan-3: What has India's Moon rover Pragyaan been up to since landing?

Pragyaan has had an eventful week - dodging craters, taking the Moon's temperature and checking for sulphur.

www.bbc.com

Indiase maanrover klaar met rondje, wetenschappers analyseren gegevens

Of er (bevroren) water is gevonden op de maan is nog niet duidelijk. Wel zijn er andere elementen waargenomen.

nos.nl

And yesterday India has launched its first observation mission to the Sun, just days after the country made history by becoming the first to land near the Moon's south pole.

Aditya-L1: India successfully launches its first mission of the Sun

Aditya-L1 will carry out scientific studies of the Sun from a vantage point 1.5 million km above Earth.

www.bbc.com