It appears that the final resting place of the failed Russian lunar lander Luna 25 has been found.
Luna-25, Russia’s first lunar probe in 47 years, hit the lunar surface on Aug. 19, during an maneuver intended to prepare for a landing attempt a few days later.
Agency officials said the accident created a crater that NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) likely found last week.
Related: The Russian lunar lander Luna-25 crashes into the moon
The LRO crews went searching for Luna-25’s grave, using the estimated impact location provided by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.
The LRO team imaged the region with the probe’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) on Aug. 24, and then compared the new images with images of the same region taken previously by LROC, most recently in June 2022. This work revealed a bright, new crater on the Moon that had been ripped out. during the past 14 months.
“Because this new crater is close to the estimated impact point of Luna 25, the LRO team has concluded that it was likely from that mission, rather than a natural impact,” NASA officials said in a statement. Today’s statement (31 August) Announcement of the discovery.
The new crater is about 33 feet (10 meters) wide and is located at approximately 58 degrees south latitude, on the steep inner rim of the Moon’s Punticulant G crater, the statement added. The impact site is located about 250 miles (400 kilometers) from Luna-25’s planned landing site, which is located at 69.5 degrees south latitude.
Luna-25 was launched on August 10, marking the start of Russia’s first mission to the Moon since 1976, when the country was still part of the Soviet Union. The name of the new mission was an attempt to remember those proud bygone days; The 1976 effort, a successful sample-return mission, was named Luna-24.
Luna-25 aims to become the first probe ever to land softly near the south pole of the moon, an area believed to be rich in water ice that could support human sites.
But its failure led to that mantle being ceded to Chandrayaan-3, an Indian mission that launched on July 14 and landed on August 23. A total of one lunar day, or about 14 Earth days. At the end of that period, the onset of lunar darkness is expected to cause the two robots to stop working.
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