The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Russian Space Corporation ROSCOSMOS are locked in a close contest for landing their respective missions Chandrayaan-3 and Luna 25 on the south pole of the Moon. Both India’s Chandrayaan 3 and Russia’s Luna 25, have entered lunar orbit and will attempt soft landing on the south pole region of the Moon in less than a week.
While ISRO’s Chandrayaan 3 will attempt a soft landing on the lunar surface on August 23, ROSCOSMOS’s Luna 25 will try to touch down on Moon’s south pole region between August 21 and 23. Interestingly, Luna was launched on August 11, almost a month after Chandrayaan-3’s launch on July 14.
The reason Chandrayaan-3 will take more time than Luna 25 to reach the Moon’s surface is that the Indian space agency is using a different trajectory to place its probe in the Lunar orbit. Due to the absence of a more powerful launch vehicle, ISRO is using the Earth and Moon’s gravitational force to put Chandrayaan 3 into lunar orbit.
The Russians, on the other hand, are using a powerful rocket to put Luna 25 on a direct path to the Moon. This will mean Russians will take less time but spend more money. Not just the methods of sending their missions, but the objectives of Chandrayaan 3 and Luna 25 are also different.
The mission objectives of India’s Chandrayaan-3:
According to the ISRO, the mission objectives of Chandrayaan 3 are to “demonstrate safe and soft landing on the lunar surface” and conduct in-situ scientific experiments on the Moon. Also, demonstrating rover roving on the less explored south pole region of the Moon is another key objective of Chandrayaan 3. If successful, India will be only the fourth country after the US, Russia, and China to land on the Moon.
The mission objectives of Russia’s Luna 25:
According to ROSCOSMOS, the two primary scientific objectives of Russia’s Moon mission Luna 25 are – to study the composition of the polar regolith and to study the plasma and dust components of the lunar polar exosphere.