THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amid the landing of Chandrayaan 3 next week on the lunar surface, Russia's Luna 25 probe, which was launched yesterday will make a landing at almost similar time.

Russia's Luna will come within 100 km of the Moon on August16. It's landing will most likely be on August 21 or 23. Chandrayaan will reach within 100 km of the lunar surface on August 17. It will make the landing on August 23. Both the landings will be at the South Pole of the moon around the same time.

There are currently six probes orbiting the moon. There is concern that these may collide. Among these, four, including the Lunar Renaissance Orbiter, belong to the United States. Others are Korea's Pathfinder and India's Chandrayaan 2. Chandrayaan-1, launched in 2008, and Japan's Ouna, launched in 2009, were decommissioned, but it is not certain whether they are orbiting the moon uncontrollably or crashed.

US and Korean probes have avoided collision several times. In 2019, Chandrayaan 2 was saved from a collision by diverting three times. Chandrayaan 3 was launched after a detailed study of the objects around the Moon. ISRO has developed the System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations management system to avoid collisions but there are concerns about how this will work.

Orbits 100 - 150 km close to the Moon are low lunar orbits. Landers will arrive here. They will land after staying for only a few days. After detaching Chandrayaan 3's lander, the propulsion module orbited the moon for a few years. It will be raised 150 km into a less congested orbit.

Luna 25

Russia's first moon mission since 1976. It was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome at 2.30am on Friday morning. It weighs about 800 kg. It will reach the moon's orbit in five days. A landing site will be selected after orbiting the moon for three to seven days. The weight of the lander is 800 kg.

It carries 38 kg of scientific instruments. A shovel will drill 15 cm into the lunar rock to test for water. It is believed that there is a huge reservoir of water in the South Pole. It is being checked whether fuel, oxygen and drinking water will be available for human habitation in the future. The Russian lander will conduct experiments on the moon for a year.

Images of Earth

ISRO releases images of Earth and Moon taken by Chandrayaan 3