NASA find crater left on moon by Russian spacecraft crash
- The ten-meter-wide crash is near the Luna 25 site
- The Russian spacecraft was meant to land on the moon's south pole
- India successfully landed a rover on the south pole
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(NewsNation) — NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) team discovered a new crater on the moon, likely left there when Russia’s failed lunar mission resulted in a crash.
Russia’s Luna 25 mission, the first moon mission for the country in 47 years, ended with the unmanned spacecraft crashing into the surface.
The intention had been to have a soft landing near the moon’s south pole. It would have been the first landing in an area scientists suspect could contain reserves of frozen water and other elements.
The spacecraft lost contact with the team on Earth and crash-landed after experiencing an anomaly when entering pre-landing orbit.
NASA’s LRO photographed a new 10-meter-wide crater on the moon near the area Luna 25 crashed and sent photos of the site back to Earth.
After the Luna 25 crash, India made a successful landing on the moon’s south pole. India’s moon rover has sent back information indicating the possible presence of elements including sulpher, oxygen, aluminium, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, maganese and silicon.
NASA hopes to return astronauts to the moon by 2025 and China recently announced it plans to send people to the moon by 2030.
