Russia launches a lunar rover in a race to find water on the moon | Science and health

Russia has launched its first spacecraft to land on the moon in 47 years in a bid to be the first country to land softly at the moon’s south pole, an area believed to contain coveted pockets of ice.

Russia’s lunar mission, the first since 1976, is in competition with India, which launched the Chandrayaan-3 lunar rover last month, and more broadly with the United States and China, both of which have advanced lunar exploration programs targeting the South Pole. lunar.

A Soyuz 2.1 rocket carrying the Luna-25 spacecraft lifted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 5,550 kilometers east of Moscow, at 2:11 a.m. local time on Friday.

Russian space chief Yuri Borisov told state television that the probe is scheduled to land on the natural satellite on August 21, although the space agency had previously set August 23 as the landing date.

“Let’s wait for the 21st day,” Borisov told the Vostochny Cosmodrome workers after the launch. “I hope there will be a very precise and soft landing on the moon.” “We hope to be the first.”

Luna-25, about the size of a small car, intends to operate for a year at the lunar south pole, where in recent years scientists from NASA and other space agencies have discovered traces of ice in shadowed craters in the area.

Moon water?

For centuries, astronomers have wondered if there is water on the Moon, which is a hundred times drier than the Sahara. NASA maps in 2018 showed ice on shaded parts of the moon, and in 2020, the US space agency confirmed that water is also present in areas illuminated by the sun.

Great powers such as the United States, China, India, Japan and the European Union have evaluated Earth’s natural satellite in recent years. A Japanese moon landing failed last year and an Israeli mission failed in 2019.

Borisov said that at least three more missions to the moon are planned over the next seven years, after which Russia and China will work on a possible manned lunar mission.