Luna-25 suffers 'anomaly' in approach maneuver with the Moon
19 Aug 2023
Roscosmos announces that the motor drive for orbital adjustment failed to operate in time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karthik Naren, Space Intelligence
Today, August 19, 2023, according to the flight program, at 14:10 (Moscow time) / 11:10 UTC an impulse was commanded to maneuver the Luna-25 automatic station to the pre-landing orbit on the lunar surface. During the operation, an “abnormal situation” (euphemism for 'breakdown') occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be carried out with the specified parameters. According to Roskosmos, the management team is analyzing the situation. If controllers be able to correct the problem, it is possible that the landing site will be changed to the alternative target – Manzini Crater and landing date can be moved to August 23, 2023. The spacecraft is in a 91.4 km x 112.6 km orbit around the Moon with an inclination of 82.087 degrees towards the lunar equator and an upward angle of 270.53 degrees of longitude. The mass of the spacecraft after reaching lunar orbit was 1750 kg.
Alexander Ivanov, First Deputy General Director for the development of the orbital constellation and promising projects of Roskosmos, personally came to NPO. Lavochkin and holds a meeting on the situation with the apparatus "Luna-25". So far, it has not been possible to establish a connection with the device. His condition is unknown. If the reports that the apparatus gave out an impulse to decelerate one and a half times more than the norm are true, then the apparatus is already at rest in the Sea of Tranquility on the surface of the Moon. So to speak, ahead of schedule carried out a hard landing."
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?
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.
