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Russia’s Luna-25, an unmanned lunar spacecraft, is scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon just two days before India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission. The launch of Luna-25 was a significant change for Russia as it marked their first lunar endeavor in 47 years and the move away from their main launch site in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft is expected to achieve a 100-kilometer orbit around the moon in approximately 5 days before attempting to land at the Boguslawsky crater.

Both Luna-25 and Chandrayaan-3 have similar goals of experimenting and gathering scientific information from the moon’s south pole. This region is considered promising for finding water ice due to the large areas in permanent shadows and colder temperatures. However, the missions have significant differences in cost and design. Luna-25 has a lower cost of 200 million Russian rubles, while Chandrayaan-3 has a budget of Rs 615 crore. Luna-25 features only a landing module, while Chandrayaan-3 includes both a landing module and a rover.

Luna-25 is equipped with eight scientific instruments, including the lunar manipulator complex (LMK) for excavating lunar regolith and the Neutron and gamma detector (ADRON-LR) for detecting water ice. Chandrayaan-3, on the other hand, aims to investigate the moon’s atmosphere and surface mineral composition using its payloads RAMBHA and ILSA. The lander, Vikram, will capture images of the rover, Pragyaan, which will study seismic activities on the moon.

The launch of Luna-25 comes at a time when Russia aims to reclaim its global leadership and build ties with non-Western countries amid the Ukraine crisis. The mission will be closely observed by Europe and America, who have been working towards isolating Russia. Despite the challenges, Russia’s lunar mission marks an advancement for their space program, which started with the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, in 1957. After over 40 years since their last lunar mission, Russia has high hopes for the success of Luna-25, just as India anticipates the landing of Chandrayaan-3 after the failure of Chandrayaan-2’s lander.

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