Luna 28 Luna 28 (Luna Resource 2 or Luna-Grunt rover) is a proposed sample-return mission from the south polar region of the Moon.List of missions).

History

The Luna-Glob programme is a continuation of the Soviet Union

Luna programme The Luna programme (from the Russian word "Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called ''Lunik'' by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Fifteen were successful, ...

that sent at least 24 orbiters and landers between 1959 and 1976 to the Moon, of which fifteen were successful. The last mission was

Luna 24 ''Luna 24'' was a robotic probe of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. The last of the Luna series of spacecraft, the mission of the ''Luna 24'' probe was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first two sampl ...

, launched on 9 August 1976. Initially, the first Luna-Glob mission was planned as orbiter with ground penetrating sensors. Four Japanese-built penetrators inherited from the

Lunar-A LUNAR-A is a cancelled Japanese spacecraft project that was originally scheduled to be launched in August 2004. After many delays (primarily due to potential thruster faults), the project was eventually cancelled in January 2007. It was planned t ...

were to be used, each 45 kg (100 lb), including 14 kg (31 lb) for the penetrator proper. Furthermore,

seismic Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...

experiments were planned, including the use of four penetrators, which will slam into the lunar surface equipped to detect seismic signals. These experiments are expected to help clarify the

origin of the Moon The origin of the Moon is usually explained by a Mars-sized body striking the Earth, making a debris ring that eventually collected into a single natural satellite, the Moon, but there are a number of variations on this giant-impact hypothesis, a ...

. Two of the penetrators are planned to land near the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...

and

Apollo 12 Apollo 12 (November 14–24, 1969) was the sixth crewed flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. It was launched on November 14, 1969, by NASA from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Commander Pete Conra ...

landing sites, taking advantage of seismic data gathered there from 1969 to 1974. The payload of the orbiter will total and include astrophysics experiments, dust monitors, plasma sensors, including the

LORD Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...

astronomy payload, designed to study ultra-high-energy

cosmic rays Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...

Luna-Resurs Luna 27 (Luna-Resurs 1 lander or Luna-Resource-1 lander)

) that would have featured a 58 kg Russian rover and lander, as part of the cancelled

International Lunar Network The International Lunar Network or ILN was a proposed network of lunar surface stations to be built by the United States and the other space-faring countries in the 2010s. Each of these stations would act as a node in a lunar geophysical network. ...

. This joint mission would have landed in the Moon's south pole, examine a crater and operate for up to one year.Luna-Resurs at RussianSpaceweb
/ref> Because the loss of the

Fobos-Grunt Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt (russian: link=no, Фобос-Грунт, where ''грунт'' refers to the ''ground'' in the narrow geological meaning of any type of soil or rock exposed on the surface) was an attempted Russian sample return mis ...

in 2011 which was planned as a test for the landing system, Russia cited its inability to provide the lander and rover within the proposed time. India then decided to develop the lunar mission independently.

List of missions

Unlike their predecessors, the new Luna missions are targeted at the lunar poles.The vision of the Russian Space Agency on the robotic settlements in the Moon
(PDF). Maxim Litva. ROSCOSMOS. 2016.

Gallery

File:Maquette-Luna-Glob-Lander-b-DSC 0075.jpg, Luna 25 File:Maquette-Luna-Resurs-Orbiter-DSC 0076.jpg, Luna 26 File:Lunar-Resurs-DSC 0019.jpg, Luna 27

Future lunar base

It was planned in 2008 that Luna-Glob, a "robotic proving ground", would be followed by a robotic base, known in Russian as ''Lunny Poligon'' - or Lunar Range, and this base would progress with the construction of a habitable

lunar base A moonbase is a facility on the surface of the Moon, enabling human activity on the Moon. As such, it is different from a lunar space station in orbit around the Moon, like the planned Lunar Gateway of the Artemis program. Moonbases can be fo ...

that would have several components: solar power station, telecommunication station, technological station, scientific station, long-range research rover, landing and launch area, and a telecom orbiting satellite. When the robotic phase is completed, the programme will continue with crewed lunar missions in the 2030s, starting with a crewed orbiter mission on a spacecraft called Orel.Return Vehicle for PTK Federatsiya transport spacecraft
Anatoly Zak, ''Russian Space Web''. 6 September 2018. As of 2017, Russia is planning to begin building the lunar base in the 2030s.

References

External links

Luna-Glob at Skyrocket

{{Moon colonization Russian space probes Missions to the Moon * Sample return missions 2020s in Russia Proposed space probes 2020s in spaceflight