Chandrayaan-3 vs Russia's Luna-25; Race to Moon's south pole position
Chandrayaan-3 vs Russia's Luna-25 race to the moon: here's who will claim the south pole position 1st "Now we will wait for the 21st. I hope that a highly precise soft landing on the moon will happen," Borisov told workers at the Vostochny Cosmodrome after the launch, according to Interfax.
Luna-25, roughly the size of a small car, will aim to operate for a year on the moon's south pole, where scientists at NASA and other space agencies in recent years have detected traces of water ice in the region's shadowed craters. The success of the Luna-25 mission carries significant importance, as the Russian government asserts that the sanctions imposed by Western countries due to the Ukraine conflict, including those aimed at the aerospace industry, have not managed to severely damage the Russian economy.
Additionally, the moon mission serves as a trial for Russia's increasing self-reliance in space. This comes in the aftermath of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which resulted in a substantial reduction in Moscow's space-related collaborations with Western nations, with the exception of its involvement in the International Space Station.
The cooperation between the Russian space agency and NASA on the space station is regarded as crucial for the station's continued functioning. Also Read: Russia Aims to Restore Prestige in Race to Moon’s South Pole "Russia's aspirations towards the moon are mixed up in a lot of different things.
I think first and foremost, it's an expression of national power on the global stage," Asif Siddiqi, professor of history at Fordham University, told Reuters. US astronaut Neil Armstrong gained renown in 1969 for being the first person to walk on the moon, but the Soviet Union's Luna-2 mission was
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