It isn’t only the US gunning for space exploration now as China and Russia are doubling down on their efforts to catch up. This space race is only going to benefit everyone as there is no better motivator than a good competitor. China is already making sure it has weapons that can work against satellites. Russia is now planning a moon landing in October.
According to reports, Russia is planning to launch a moon landing mission to the south pole scheduled for launch this October. According to Lev Zelenyi, Scientific advisor for the Russian Space Research Institute, Russia is currently planning to send five missions to the moon within the coming ten years.
The mission is aptly named Luna 25, a continuation of their last mission Luna 24 which happened as far back as 1976. The goal of Luna 25 is to probe and thoroughly investigate ice deposits. These deposits are suspected to be buried beneath Moon’s south pole. If these ice deposits are found it could mean that we would finally be able to establish a foothold on the Moon itself.
Russia also hopes to further study the phenomenon of lunar dust which is another obstacle in humanity’s quest to conquer the moon. Lunar dust is said to destroy brain and lung cells if exposed to them for too long.
One of their future missions will be called Luna 26 which will be an Orbital mission to check and research any magnetic anomalies around the Moon’s orbit. Other future missions like continue that agenda of researching Lunar Ice while making sure to not damage any existing ice structures.
With three big countries trying to rush to the moon again, who do you think will be able to pull it off the quickest?