• Forum
• SITREP
• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security

• Space

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Public Eye

Russia - Luna 28 / Luna-Grunt / Luna-Resource 2

The launches of the Russian landing vehicles Luna-28 and Luna-29 may be postponed outside the Federal Space Program (FKP) until 2025, TASS was told 16 May 2016 at the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "The launch of these devices is scheduled for 2024 (Luna-28) and 2025 (Luna-29), but it may go beyond the scope of the current FKP," the Institute said. In early April 2016, the developer of the devices, NPO Lavochkin, approved a schedule for lunar exploration. According to the approved plans, the Luna-28 apparatus was planned to be launched in 2024. The station will have a soil sampling device, means for sampling and temperature control of soil samples, and a system for delivering samples to Earth for further research.

The Luna-28 spacecraft, which is supposed to take a sample of lunar soil with subsequent delivery to Earth, can be launched in 2026-2027. This was reported 08 October 2019 to TASS by the scientific director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI) Lev Zeleny. "The Luna-28 and Luna-29 vehicles are included in the next federal space program, these two projects are planned to be carried out until 2029-2030. Luna-28 is the delivery [to Earth] of lunar soil, Luna-29" "delivery [to the Moon] of a rover with varying degrees of maneuverability and the ability to explore geological samples in situ. The Luna 28 mission is scheduled to launch in 2026-2027," the scientist said.

The most interesting sites for future lunar outposts are thought to be located closely to poles, and South one is found to be more preferable. But before humans could land there, the sequence of robotic missions should be implemented to study the natural environment at the selected sites, to deliver some supporting systems for ensuring conditions of habitability and also to test the innovated technology for Earth-Moon-Earth round trip.

Therefore, the Russian Lunar Program will be ignited by four robotic missions, which Russian Academy of Science has selected for the initial stage of this Program. The names Luna-25 -28 were selected taking into account the name of the last Soviet lander Luna-24 of 1976. The objectives of these missions are critically important for accomplishment of the future polar expeditions of humans. The missions will conduct orbital mapping of polar regions with fine spatial resolution, measurements of radiation environment at the selected landing sites, testing of water and space volatiles in the polar regolith, and, in particular - testing presence of complex molecules and pre-biotic molecular complexes, the lunar dust and exosphere, etc.

Mobile elements of landing missions will investigate local areas around the landing sites to determine the best spots for the future habitation modules of human missions. In addition, the researches for the basic science will also be accomplished by these missions, such as the experiments for lunar-based astronomy at long wavelengths and at gamma-rays, the experiments for lunar seismology, for monitoring of interplanetary plasma and solar wind, etc.

The key mission of the first stage of the Lunar Program is the Luna-28 mission for lunar polar sample return. NPO Lavochkin is developing a project for the delivery of lunar soil from the region of the South Pole of the Moon. Along with the solution of scientific problems during the project, it is planned to work out the technology of high-precision landing on a radio beacon, as well as a method for ensuring a safe landing on the final section of the approach to the surface with the identification of potentially dangerous terrain elements and the possibility of performing a lateral maneuver.

The mission concept is based on the several basic requirements. The mission should have the return module for direct flight from Moon to Earth. The module should be able to deliver to the Earth a set of samples of polar regolith with the total mass of about 2 kilograms. They should be quarried from different depths of the shallow subsurface from several cm down to 1 meter.

The Luna-28 spacecraft will deliver soil samples taken from a depth of up to 2 m. This follows from an article by scientists and engineers from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and JSC NPO Lavochkin, published 30 June 2022 in the Russian Space magazine (official publication of Roscosmos ). "The Luna-28 spacecraft will not only take soil samples from a depth of up to 2 m, keeping them at cryogenic temperatures, but will also deliver these samples to Earth," the article says.

Samples should be delivered to the Earth with all volatiles, including water, in the frozen state. Luna-28 is supposed to deliver soil, but not like the Soviet Lunas, but with the preservation of volatile components, including water ice. If we take a soil sample, as the Soviet Lunas did, then the water, if it is there, will simply evaporate at zero ambient pressure on the Moon, and we will not understand whether it was there or not.

Small moonrover "Lunokhod" with mass below 100 kg should be delivered to the Moon by the lander. Before the launch of the return module, the rover could deliver remotely selected stones for return at the nearest vicinity of the lander, after the launch, the rover should conduct scientific studies of the area around the landing site. The mission of Luna-28 will also be supported by the ground segment for proper curation of delivered samples and for their studies in the leading domestic and international research centers. The complex molecules and organic molecular complexes will be the main objects for these studies.

Experts note that they are considering the possibility of combining the operation to return the polar regolith with testing the landing stage of the future manned lunar takeoff and landing complex, where the MARFA robot, a mobile autonomous robotic multifunctional equipment, will take on the role of the tester. It is emphasized that the appearance of this "Luna-28" has not yet been approved.

In January 2019, scientific director of the IKI RAS Lev Zeleny told RIA Novosti that the launch of Luna-28 is scheduled for 2027. She will deliver frozen lunar soil to Earth. At the same time, the heavy lunar rover is planned to be delivered to the Moon by the Luna-29 landing station in 2028. Russia plans to launch a mini-lunar rover to the Moon as part of the Luna-28 automatic landing station, Maxim Litvak, head of the laboratory for neutron and gamma ray spectroscopy at the Department of Nuclear Planetology at the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciencesm, said 09 October 2019. “It was originally planned that it (“Luna-28” - ed.) would consist only of a landing station with the main task of delivering soil samples to Earth from the south pole of the moon,” Litvak said at the Tenth Moscow International Symposium on Solar System Research.

"Now it is proposed that this will not only be the delivery of samples to Earth, but also a self-contained medium-sized rover," he added. In the presentation presented by Litvak, it was noted that the mini-lunar rover will have a mass of 30 to 100 kilograms, move at a speed of no more than 3 kilometers per hour for a distance of up to 30 kilometers and work for one year. In addition, it is equipped with a manipulator.

He noted that scientists propose to “land” Luna-28 next to the Luna-27 landing station, which is scheduled to launch in 2025. This will allow the rover to transfer lunar soil samples from Luna 27 to Luna 28. Litvak also said that one of the options involves the creation of a mini-lunar rover for Luna-28 by the German Air and Space Center.

A RIA source in the rocket and space industry reported that they plan to launch Luna-28 from the Vostochny cosmodrome using the Angara-A5 launch vehicle with the DM-03 upper stage.

At the GLEX-2021 International Space Research Conference, Anatoly Petrukovich, director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the company had completed the stage of technical proposals as part of the preliminary mission project called Luna-28. It involves the delivery of soil from the polar region of the natural satellite of the Earth.

“Strictly speaking, the stage called technical proposals, the preliminary design, has been completed for Luna-28. These are preliminary considerations, as a result of which the exact terms of reference for the project should be formed,” Petrukovich said. The institute has not yet begun preliminary design, which is the next stage. At the same time, the possibility of unification of Luna-28 with manned missions to the Earth's natural satellite is being considered.

“The question is whether to implement in Luna-28 the groundwork for manned flights only in part of the landing systems, or to create a direct analogue. Now this issue is being discussed, ”said the director of the IKI RAS. Petrukovich said that in order to send an analogue of a manned landing module to the Moon, the platform should be about twice as large as the one that Luna-28 currently has.

The Luna-28 and Luna-29 missions are part of the federal space program and are designed for a period up to 2029-2030. Luna-28 should be launched around 2027-2028, and there are no deadlines for the implementation of the Luna-29 mission yet, since work on lunar rovers is at the very initial stage. Presumably, "Luna-28" will receive the appearance of a lunar take-off and landing ship.