Luna 25

Luna 25 is a lunar lander mission by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). It was planned to land near the lunar south pole at the Boguslavsky crater. It was renamed from Luna-Glob lander to Luna 25 to emphasize the continuity of the Soviet Luna programme from the 1970s, though it is still part of what was at one point conceptualized as the Luna-Glob lunar exploration program. Initial mission plans called for a lander and orbiter, with the latter also deploying impact penetrators. In its current form, Luna 25 is a lander only, with a primary mission of proving out the landing technology. The mission will carry 30 kg of scientific instruments, including a robotic arm for soil samples and possible drilling hardware. The lander must remain active for at least one year on the lunar surface. It is composed of two parts, the propulsive part, based on the Fregat stage, and the scientific part, which contains the main on-board computer as well as the various on-board experiments, coming from Russia, but also from Sweden and Switzerland. Luna 25 is the first mission of Russia's new lunar program, which includes the launch of Luna 26, a lunar orbiter that will precisely map the lunar surface, Luna 27, a heavy lander that will study the composition of the lunar soil by collecting several samples. Luna 28, a lunar samples return mission, will be the first to return samples at lunar temperature, and will serve as a demonstration for a future Martian samples return mission. Finally, Luna 29 should land a heavy lunar rover on the surface.