DNA Special: Will Russia's Lunar-25 steal India's Chandrayaan-3 thunder in race to moon?

There is a competition to make a soft landing on the south pole of the moon. No country has been able to succeed in this so far. India launched Chandrayaan-3 for this on July 14, 2023, which has currently reached the Moon's Orbit. According to ISRO's plan, our Chandrayaan-3 will attempt a soft landing on the South Pole of the Moon on August 23. If you do not know about Soft landings, then let us tell you that when a spacecraft is sent through a rocket, it reaches the surface of a planet or satellite in two ways.

One of these ways is Soft Landing - i.e. the spacecraft successfully reached the surface. There was no problem.

The second is Hard Landing - This means that the spacecraft could not reach the surface properly. You can also call it Crash Landing.

You will remember that it was said about Chandrayaan-2 that it has done a hard landing. So, this meant that there was a crash landing on the South Pole of the Moon. But the Indian scientists did not give up then, and now they have sent Chandrayaan-3 to land on the lunar surface. Our Chandrayaan-3 is going to get big competition from LUNA-25.

Russia's Space Agency 'Ros-cosmos' had also prepared a plan for a soft landing on the South Pole of the Moon. LUNA-25, Russia's only spacecraft, will try a soft landing at the South Pole for the first time. Today, the spacecraft LUNA-25 of Roscomos has made a successful flight.

Today the LUNA-25 spacecraft was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome (Vostony Cosmodrome).

This place is about 5,550 km east of Moscow, the capital of Russia. The Luna-25 spacecraft will reach the Moon's orbit within 4 to 5 days. Here it will orbit the moon for a few days, then on August 21, it will attempt a soft landing on the moon.

Till a few days back it was being said that LUNA-25 and Chandrayaan-3 would soft land on the south pole of the Moon on the same day i.e. August 23, but now Russia has gone two days ahead in this race.

Russia's Space Agency has sent the LUNA-25 spacecraft toward the Moon with its powerful Soyuz-2 Fregat booster rocket.

The wonder of this powerful rocket is that LUNA-25 will reach the Moon's orbit within 4 to 5 days. After reaching the orbit, Luna-25 will revolve around the moon's orbit for 3 to 7 days.

Now, you must be thinking that why is it that the Russian spacecraft is reaching the moon quickly? So let us give you some special information related to Chandrayaan-3 and Luna-25.

Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14 and LUNA-25 has been launched on August 11 i.e. today. Chandrayaan-3 was sent from Launch Vehicle Mark-3 M4 rocket and Luna-25 has been sent from Soyuz-2 Fregat booster rocket which is more powerful than India's rocket.

Chandrayaan-3 has reached the Moon after traveling a long way. India is running ambitious missions with the help of small rockets at a low cost. Indian scientists have saved fuel to reduce the cost of sending Chandrayaan-3. They have taken the help of the gravity of the Earth and the Moon. This was the reason why Chandrayaan-3 took more time to reach the Moon.

On the other hand, Russia has sent LUNA-25 with the help of its powerful rocket, due to which it got more Velocity, which is why it will reach the Moon soon.

Chandrayaan-3 has already reached LUNAR ORBIT. It is rotating in different orbits of the Moon. It will attempt a soft landing on August 23.

After reaching the Lunar Orbit, LUNA-25 will also revolve around the Moon's orbit. After that, it will attempt a soft landing on August 21.

Chandrayaan-3 is taking about 40 days to reach the Moon's surface, whereas Luna-25 is taking only 10 days to reach the surface of the moon.

Chandrayaan-3 will collect information about the Moon for about 14 days after its successful landing. Whereas luna-25 will remain on the moon for about 1 year after a successful landing.

Chandrayaan-3 will send the collected information to Earth through its Orbiter. This orbiter will keep revolving in the orbit of the Moon.
At the same time, Luna-25 will send information directly from the lunar surface to the Earth.

If seen, this mission to reach the moon will be an important event for both the countries and the entire humanity. So far no country has been able to land on the south pole of the moon. Whichever country will be the first to make a soft landing on the South Pole of the Moon, will create history. It can be Russia as well as India.

Right now only America, China, and Russia have done a soft landing on the Moon.

But all these three countries have done this landing near the equator of the Moon, where the sunlight reaches.

Sunlight does not reach the South Pole, to date no country has been able to reach this part.

On August 21, if the Russian spacecraft Luna-25 can make a successful landing, it will become the first country to reach the south pole of the Moon, followed by India after the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on August 23. There will be a country, which will reach the South Pole. However, achieving success in soft landing is the biggest challenge of this mission for both countries.

America, Russia, India, and many other countries are also engaged in the race to reach the South Pole of the Moon. In the area of the Moon where America, Russia, and China had reached so far, they did not find anything special except barren land. Although serious efforts to go to the south pole of the moon have not been made by the US, Russia, and China.

If India's Chandrayaan-3 lands on the south pole of the moon, it will be a historic moment. 

Now, we will have to wait and see who comes out a winner - India or Russia?