Luna-25 suffers 'anomaly' in approach maneuver with the Moon

[gary]

19 Aug 2023

Roscosmos announces that the motor drive for orbital adjustment failed to operate in time.



Story here :-

https://www.spaceintel101.com/post/luna-25-suffers-anomaly-in-approach-maneuver-with-the-moon

[Dennis]

Thanks Gary - always sad when a space mission goes wrong.

Cheers

Dennis

[ChrisD]

"Luna-25 is now on the surface of the moon after a successful lithobraking maneuver" - Kremlin spokesman (probably)

Lithobraking- Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithobraking#:~:text=Lithobraking%2 0is%20used%20to%20refer,spacecraft% 20ran%20out%20of%20fuel.)

[Wussell]

It probably ran into a Ukranian drone ;)

[Leo.G]

That's Japan and now Russia, 2 for 2. Two countries I normally wouldn't expect to mess up on the maths (I've worked with and known engineers from both countries). Now it will be interesting to see if India land their rig.
Failing that there should be some cheap real estate available on the moon soon, slight lander damage, maybe a crater and some wreckage?
Salvage rights?

[ChrisD]

After Apollo 13 returned to earth Grumman, who built the Lunar Module, sent a bill for "towing services" to North American Aviation, who built the Command/Service Modules.

Maybe you could charge them for salvage services?

Chris