In a recent interview with the Russian magazine Pro Cosmos, Lev Zeleny, scientific director of the Academy of Sciences, has revealed some interesting details that will characterize the next Luna-27 mission to our natural satellite.
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Luna-26
Even though the Luna-25 mission, which marked Russia’s return to lunar exploration, ended prematurely due to a trivial programming error, the Luna program is proceeding without stopping. The next launch will be that of the Luna-26 Orbiter, scheduled for 2027 but which could be brought forward to 2026. This mission will map the surface of the Moon’s north and south poles at high resolution and act as a radio relay for all future space missions, automatic and otherwise. This path mirrors the one already successfully undertaken by India with the Chandrayaan-2 probe orbiter and China with the Quequiao satellites.
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Not just a radio link
Luna-26, Zeleny says, will continue the study of neutron fluxes from the Moon, already carried out by a Russian instrument on board the American LRO apparatus.
It was the data from this device in 2009 that quantitatively confirmed the idea of the presence of water at the poles.
In addition, the dynamics of the movement of the apparatus around the Moon will be studied to map the characteristics of the gravitational field, which has a very complex structure due to the presence of mascons (Mass Concentrations).
These gravitational anomalies cause serious deviations in the trajectories of lunar orbits from normal Keplerian trajectories (i.e. simple rotation around a heavy central mass).
According to Zeleny, the reasons for the appearance of such massive inclusions on the Moon are unknown.
They could be caused by underground fragments of huge asteroids that once collided with the Moon. Magnetic anomalies are also of interest for research on Luna-26 because they partially shield local areas of the lunar surface from direct interaction with the solar wind, and the regolith in these areas can acquire specific interesting properties.
As mentioned, another task of Luna-26 is to transmit data that will arrive from the next station, Luna-27, which is scheduled to land on the Moon.
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The Luna-27 dual mission
The scientific equipment of Luna-27 will be a further step forward compared to Luna-25. One of the instruments will study the properties and characteristics of lunar dust, which, unlike terrestrial dust, plays a very negative role both for technology and especially for humans.
However, the main experiment remains the manipulator that will take soil samples and transfer them to the instruments to study their elemental composition.
The probe will also have instruments to study electromagnetic fields from the surface. A vital role will be played by the complex of video cameras with which it is aimed to obtain high-resolution panoramic photos and to see all the structural features of the surface at the landing site.
In the aftermath of the Luna-25 failure, the Academy of Sciences proposed to Roscosmos to build two completely identical devices; this will lead to a reduction in costs.
The possibility of launching two similar vehicles will increase the chances of completing the mission or, if both are successful, allow doubling the research program by landing a second vehicle in a different geological region of the Moon.
And, in this context, says Zeleny, the attention of the developers has been focused on the North Pole of the Moon, where possible bodies of water have been discovered, not in the quantities present at the South Pole, but large enough to justify an exploratory mission that, in terms of technical difficulties, is similar to that planned for the South Pole.
It is particularly interesting to compare the difference between the composition of the soil at the North and South Poles.
The mission will involve sending the first Luna-27 device to the North Pole and its double to the South Pole. If all goes well, Russia will be the first country to land on both poles of our satellite.
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Luna-28
The next stage of the program will be the Luna-28 mission.
In the 1970s, soil samples were taken from a drilling platform. As usual during drilling, the device heated up, also heating the soil. This caused all volatile substances that could be in it, including water, to evaporate and not be part of the sample returned to Earth.
Luna-28 will perform cryogenic drilling. With this technique, the soil will not heat up and there will be no evaporation of substances. The sample will then be delivered to Earth in a temperature-controlled capsule.
The equipment is under development, but the deadline for the implementation of this project has been postponed to the late 20s and, most likely, in the early 30s.
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Looking ahead
Lev Zeleny concludes with a fantastic proposal: to integrate the exploration of the Moon by automatic machines with a manned lunar program.
The idea, according to the Russian academician, is this: the first landing of a manned spacecraft on the Moon is probably planned in an unmanned mode.
At the same time, at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, anthropomorphic robots have been developed for several years.
These robots move and respond more than actively to their surroundings.
And so the idea was born to place one in the first manned lunar landing device.
The hypothesized scenario is this: after landing on the Moon, the robot will exit the apparatus along a ladder and collect various samples. The robot on the Moon, under the control of geologists on Earth who will tell it which samples to take, will collect several tens of kilograms of lunar soil that will be brought back to Earth. Then it will place these samples in the lunar landing ship in its place, close the hatch, sit on the ground, and, waving with its manipulator, photograph the departure of the device by sending these images to Earth.
This will solve two problems: the testing of a manned lunar landing ship, and the collection and delivery of lunar soil to Earth.
