“Roscosmos” announced the loss of “Mysyats-25”

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Summarize this content to 100 words On August 20, 2023, Roscosmos announced the loss of the Luna-25 interplanetary automatic station. According to the agency, the device went into an uncalculated orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon. “On August 19, according to the flight program of the Misyats-25 spacecraft, it was planned to release an impulse to form its pre-landing elliptical orbit. At around 14:57 Moscow time, communication with the Misyats-25 spacecraft was interrupted.On August 19 and 20, efforts to find the device and contact it did not yield results.According to the results of the preliminary analysis, in connection with the deviation of the actual parameters of the pulse from the calculated ones, the device went into an uncalculated orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon.The issues of finding out the reasons for the loss of the “Moon” will be dealt with by a specially formed interdepartmental commission,” Roscosmos reported.Full description of the mission and scientific instruments of “Moon-25”. The on-board integrated computing complex (BYVK-R) is responsible for managing the station’s equipment, including communication with the Central Control Unit.Chronology of the “Moon-25” missionOn August 11, the first Russian mission to the moon was launched from the Skhidny cosmodrome. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the interplanetary automatic station “Misyats-25″ launched into space at 2:10:57 Moscow time. During the next ten days, the Flight Control Center (FTC) will work around the clock, conducting communication sessions with the station every two hours.”Roscosmos” confirmed that the automatic station “Misyats-25” was placed on the trajectory of the flight to the moon and separated from the acceleration unit “Fregate”. After separation from the Frigat booster unit, the automatic station was taken over, Roscosmos explained. Judging by the received telemetry, the service and on-board systems of “Misyatsa-25” are functioning normally. The connection with the station is stable and steady, the control group works normally. On August 12, the automatic station “Misyats-25” corrected the trajectory of the flight to the Moon for the first time. This procedure was carried out normally. The engine installation of the station (low-thrust engines) was switched on at 16:00 Moscow time and worked for 46 seconds. On August 13, the first inclusion and transfer of data from the complex of scientific equipment “Moon-25” took place. “All systems of the automatic station work normally, the connection with it is stable, the energy balance is positive. During the flight, the first inclusions of the complex of scientific equipment developed by the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ICM RAS) were carried out. Service telemetry information from all devices showed their regular functioning. “The first measurement data on the flight to the Moon have been received, and the project’s scientific team has begun processing them,” Roskosmos said. On August 14, the automatic station “Misyats-25” corrected the trajectory of the flight to the moon for the second time. This procedure was carried out normally. The engine unit of the station turned on at 06:40 Moscow time and worked for 24.3 seconds. “Roscosmos” added that all systems of “Misyatsa-25” are functioning normally, communication with the station is stable. “Roscosmos” published the first images from the onboard cameras of “Mysyatsa-25”. The Moon service television system-25 (STS-L) consists of eight color cameras. Specialists of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences presented the first color photo from the Moon-25 onboard camera.Photo in scientific format, obtained by one of the stereo cameras of the STS-L complex of the automatic station “Luna-25” on August 15, 2023 at 00:00:22 dmv during the flight stage from a distance of about 380,000 km. from Earth Photo: IKI RAN. On August 16, “Misyats-25” entered an intermediate lunar orbit at a height of about 100 km, the procedure went smoothly. For the first time, the apparatus turned on the cruise engine. This happened at the time of the launch of the apparatus into the initial orbit around the moon. The engines of “Misyatsa-25” worked for about five minutes and consumed a significant part of the fuel in the tanks. On August 17, 2023, “Roscosmos” showed the first detailed photo of the Moon from “Mysyat-25” during the maneuvers performed by the device in a circular 100-kilometer circumlunar polar orbit. The image, taken today at 08:23 Moscow time, shows the south polar Zeeman crater on the far side of the Moon. The coordinates of the center of the crater correspond to 75 degrees south latitude and 135 degrees west longitude. Photo by the STS-L apparatus of the Moon-25 spacecraft of the region of the Zeeman crater on the far side of the Moon, obtained on August 17, 2023 at 08:22:56 during the flight of the artificial satellite of the Earth. Photo: IKI RAN The employee of IKI RAS explained that the flight of “Moon-25” is going according to plan, the choice of the actual landing area depends on the landing orbit. The area north of the Bohuslavsky crater on the visible side of the Moon was chosen as the priority landing site for “Moon-25”. If for some reason the device cannot land there, that is, there are two more backup landing sites: southwest of the Mancini crater or south of the Pentland-A crater. The circumpolar region of the Moon is quite complex in terms of terrain. Taking into account the requirements for the slope, as well as for illumination and the possibility of communication with the Earth, the IRI of the Russian Academy of Sciences managed to find only eleven suitable candidate areas, from which the experts chose three. They are the most promising from the point of view of finding water, are regularly illuminated by the Sun and meet the engineering requirements for the terrain.Specialists of TsUP began to form a landing orbit for the station. It will be elliptical, and when passing perihelion (the point that is the least distant from the Moon), the device will be only 18 km from the surface of the Earth’s satellite. The spacecraft will spend another two days in this orbit, making 24 revolutions. And then the admixture procedure will begin. On August 18, at 09:20 Moscow International Space Station “Misyats-25” corrected the near-lunar orbit. The engines worked for 40 seconds. As reported by “Roscosmos”, the correction was carried out normally, all onboard systems of “Mysyat-25” are working normally, communication with it is stable. The purpose of the adjustment is to ensure the best conditions for the further construction of the pre-landing orbit in the main impurity area north of the Boguslavsky crater. On August 19, IKI RAS published the results of the first power-ups of scientific instruments on the Luna-25 automatic station. The station’s science instruments collected soil data, recorded the Zeeman Crater, and were able to capture a micrometeorite impact from the Perseid stream. Zeeman Crater, shooting by two landing cameras of the STS-L television complex on board the Moon-25 spacecraft on August 17, 2023 during the flight of the artificial lunar satellite. Background: data from the LROC camera of the LRO (NASA). Photo: IKI RAN. From August 16, the Misyats-25 station was supposed to spend three days in a circular 100-kilometer orbit, making 36 turns around the Moon. The plane of motion of the station is approximately perpendicular to the direction from the Moon to the Sun. This made it possible to obtain a lunar orbit without shadow areas and provide the necessary amount of electricity from solar batteries. It was planned that on the fourth day after entering the moon’s orbit, the specialists of the Center for the Development of Communications and Information Technology will form the final version of the landing orbit for the station. It will be elliptical, and when passing perihelion (the point that is the least distant from the Moon), the device will be only 18 km from the surface of the Earth’s satellite. The spacecraft will spend another two days in this orbit, making 24 revolutions. In the afternoon of August 19, “Roscosmos” announced that an abnormal situation occurred during the transition of the automatic station “Misyats-25” to the pre-landing orbit, which did not allow to perform the necessary maneuver with the specified parameters.

“Roscosmos” announced the loss of “Mysyats-25”

On August 20, 2023, Roscosmos announced the loss of the Luna-25 interplanetary automatic station. According to the agency, the device went into an uncalculated orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon.

“On August 19, according to the flight program of the Misyats-25 spacecraft, it was planned to release an impulse to form its pre-landing elliptical orbit.

At around 14:57 Moscow time, communication with the Misyats-25 spacecraft was interrupted.

On August 19 and 20, efforts to find the device and contact it did not yield results.

According to the results of the preliminary analysis, in connection with the deviation of the actual parameters of the pulse from the calculated ones, the device went into an uncalculated orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon.

The issues of finding out the reasons for the loss of the “Moon” will be dealt with by a specially formed interdepartmental commission,” Roscosmos reported.

Full description of the mission and scientific instruments of “Moon-25”. The on-board integrated computing complex (BYVK-R) is responsible for managing the station’s equipment, including communication with the Central Control Unit.

Chronology of the “Moon-25” mission

On August 11, the first Russian mission to the moon was launched from the Skhidny cosmodrome. The Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the interplanetary automatic station “Misyats-25” launched into space at 2:10:57 Moscow time. During the next ten days, the Flight Control Center (FTC) will work around the clock, conducting communication sessions with the station every two hours.

“Roscosmos” confirmed that the automatic station “Misyats-25” was placed on the trajectory of the flight to the moon and separated from the acceleration unit “Fregate”. After separation from the Frigat booster unit, the automatic station was taken over, Roscosmos explained. Judging by the received telemetry, the service and on-board systems of “Misyatsa-25” are functioning normally. The connection with the station is stable and steady, the control group works normally.


On August 12, the automatic station “Misyats-25” corrected the trajectory of the flight to the Moon for the first time. This procedure was carried out normally. The engine installation of the station (low-thrust engines) was switched on at 16:00 Moscow time and worked for 46 seconds.


On August 13, the first inclusion and transfer of data from the complex of scientific equipment “Moon-25” took place. “All systems of the automatic station work normally, the connection with it is stable, the energy balance is positive. During the flight, the first inclusions of the complex of scientific equipment developed by the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ICM RAS) were carried out. Service telemetry information from all devices showed their regular functioning. “The first measurement data on the flight to the Moon have been received, and the project’s scientific team has begun processing them,” Roskosmos said.


On August 14, the automatic station “Misyats-25” corrected the trajectory of the flight to the moon for the second time. This procedure was carried out normally. The engine unit of the station turned on at 06:40 Moscow time and worked for 24.3 seconds. “Roscosmos” added that all systems of “Misyatsa-25” are functioning normally, communication with the station is stable.


“Roscosmos” published the first images from the onboard cameras of “Mysyatsa-25”. The Moon service television system-25 (STS-L) consists of eight color cameras.

Specialists of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences presented the first color photo from the Moon-25 onboard camera.

Photo in scientific format, obtained by one of the stereo cameras of the STS-L complex of the automatic station “Luna-25” on August 15, 2023 at 00:00:22 dmv during the flight stage from a distance of about 380,000 km. from Earth Photo: IKI RAN.


On August 16, “Misyats-25” entered an intermediate lunar orbit at a height of about 100 km, the procedure went smoothly. For the first time, the apparatus turned on the cruise engine. This happened at the time of the launch of the apparatus into the initial orbit around the moon. The engines of “Misyatsa-25” worked for about five minutes and consumed a significant part of the fuel in the tanks.


On August 17, 2023, “Roscosmos” showed the first detailed photo of the Moon from “Mysyat-25” during the maneuvers performed by the device in a circular 100-kilometer circumlunar polar orbit. The image, taken today at 08:23 Moscow time, shows the south polar Zeeman crater on the far side of the Moon. The coordinates of the center of the crater correspond to 75 degrees south latitude and 135 degrees west longitude.

Photo by the STS-L apparatus of the Moon-25 spacecraft of the region of the Zeeman crater on the far side of the Moon, obtained on August 17, 2023 at 08:22:56 during the flight of the artificial satellite of the Earth. Photo: IKI RAN


The employee of IKI RAS explained that the flight of “Moon-25” is going according to plan, the choice of the actual landing area depends on the landing orbit.

The area north of the Bohuslavsky crater on the visible side of the Moon was chosen as the priority landing site for “Moon-25”. If for some reason the device cannot land there, that is, there are two more backup landing sites: southwest of the Mancini crater or south of the Pentland-A crater. The circumpolar region of the Moon is quite complex in terms of terrain. Taking into account the requirements for the slope, as well as for illumination and the possibility of communication with the Earth, the IRI of the Russian Academy of Sciences managed to find only eleven suitable candidate areas, from which the experts chose three. They are the most promising from the point of view of finding water, are regularly illuminated by the Sun and meet the engineering requirements for the terrain.

Specialists of TsUP began to form a landing orbit for the station. It will be elliptical, and when passing perihelion (the point that is the least distant from the Moon), the device will be only 18 km from the surface of the Earth’s satellite. The spacecraft will spend another two days in this orbit, making 24 revolutions. And then the admixture procedure will begin.


On August 18, at 09:20 Moscow International Space Station “Misyats-25” corrected the near-lunar orbit. The engines worked for 40 seconds. As reported by “Roscosmos”, the correction was carried out normally, all onboard systems of “Mysyat-25” are working normally, communication with it is stable. The purpose of the adjustment is to ensure the best conditions for the further construction of the pre-landing orbit in the main impurity area north of the Boguslavsky crater.


On August 19, IKI RAS published the results of the first power-ups of scientific instruments on the Luna-25 automatic station. The station’s science instruments collected soil data, recorded the Zeeman Crater, and were able to capture a micrometeorite impact from the Perseid stream.

Zeeman Crater, shooting by two landing cameras of the STS-L television complex on board the Moon-25 spacecraft on August 17, 2023 during the flight of the artificial lunar satellite. Background: data from the LROC camera of the LRO (NASA). Photo: IKI RAN.


From August 16, the Misyats-25 station was supposed to spend three days in a circular 100-kilometer orbit, making 36 turns around the Moon. The plane of motion of the station is approximately perpendicular to the direction from the Moon to the Sun. This made it possible to obtain a lunar orbit without shadow areas and provide the necessary amount of electricity from solar batteries.

It was planned that on the fourth day after entering the moon’s orbit, the specialists of the Center for the Development of Communications and Information Technology will form the final version of the landing orbit for the station. It will be elliptical, and when passing perihelion (the point that is the least distant from the Moon), the device will be only 18 km from the surface of the Earth’s satellite. The spacecraft will spend another two days in this orbit, making 24 revolutions.


In the afternoon of August 19, “Roscosmos” announced that an abnormal situation occurred during the transition of the automatic station “Misyats-25” to the pre-landing orbit, which did not allow to perform the necessary maneuver with the specified parameters.

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