At the moment, many countries that are actively developing in the direction of space are creating their own missions to explore the moon. In the United States, specialists from NASA are developing two independent programs at once, one of which was transferred to the private company SpaceX, similar ideas are hatched in China and, of course, Russia. And although at the moment Roscosmos has certain difficulties with the implementation of the mission called Luna-25, specialists are already working on far-reaching plans, including the spacecraft that they plan to use when launching the Luna-27 mission. However, the initial plans for this project had to be redrawn – the engineers decided to completely replace all foreign components with imports.
The TASS news publication, citing Igor Mitrofanov, head of the Department of Nuclear Planetology at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reports that Roscosmos was forced to abandon the component base of the spacecraft being developed for the Luna-27 mission, since now they are simply can not use. Initially, according to the head of the institute, the design of all spacecraft instruments was carried out taking into account the use of many imported components, but now it is not possible to purchase parts from foreign colleagues due to a number of sanctions restrictions. Accordingly, in order to continue work on the mission, the hardware component needs to be redone.
“We will definitely work on the Luna-27 spacecraft this year. We will switch to domestic equipment,” Mitrofanov added.
However, as with all space projects, it takes a lot of time to reformat the project and replace foreign components with our own, which may still have to be developed. Because of this, Roskosmos has already announced that in 2025 the launch of the Luna-27 mission, with a high degree of probability, will not take place. Now there are no exact dates, but the launch of the program was postponed, because certain resources are needed to design and integrate new components. Approximately, “Luna-27” was postponed two years ahead, which, of course, also shifts the launch of “Luna-28” for sampling soil from the surface of the Moon – the mission was originally planned to be implemented in 2028.
Now Roscosmos specialists are planning to launch the Luna-25 mission – approximately in 2023, although it has already been postponed many times. Further, in 2024, if everything goes according to plan, the Luna-26 mission will be launched with an orbiter that will be sent to the Earth’s satellite. And, apparently, after that, all programs will be shifted by one or two years.
Source: Trash Box
Charles Grill is a tech-savvy writer with over 3 years of experience in the field. He writes on a variety of technology-related topics and has a strong focus on the latest advancements in the industry. He is connected with several online news websites and is currently contributing to a technology-focused platform.
