India's Chandrayaan-3 Vs Russia's Luna-25: Race to the Moon

Russia’s Luna-25 to launch soon. It might clash with the landing date of India's Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s south pole.

Who will win the race to the Moon? Chandrayaan-3 or Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft. (AP)

India's Chandrayaan- 3 spacecraft has moved closer to the Moon's surface and it has reduced the orbit by 174 km x 1437 km, ISRO revealed. Now, it will conduct another major manoeuvre on August 14, which will take the spacecraft even closer to the moon. Along with India's Moon mission, Russia is now set to launch its Lunar mission. This will happen tomorrow, August 11, and it will be the country's first attempt after 45 years. Experts believe that both may well have similar landing days.

Moon Landing Date

India's Chandrayaan-3 and Luna-25 are planning to land on the south pole location of the Moon because scientists have a notion that the area might consist of unique and important quantities of ice which can be later used to extract fuel and oxygen along with drinking water. However, landing in the area is not easy due to the rough terrain.

Russia's Luna-25 will launch from Vostochny Cosmodrome 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow tomorrow and will take five days to fly to the moon. It will spend 7 days in the moon's orbit as per Reuters reports. Now, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is set to land on the Moon's surface on August 23 which may also clash with the landing date of Russia's spacecraft.

Will two spacecraft become a problem for each other?

Roscosmos has said clearly that the two spacecraft will not get in each other's way as both have different landing areas. Reuters quoted, "There is no danger that they interfere with each other or collide. There is enough space for everyone on the moon."

The two missions have different objectives and times to study the Moon's surface. Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will spend one Lunar day on Moon (14 days on Earth), however, Luna-25 will continue its study for a year to discover the presence of frozen water 6 inches below the Moon's surface that could support human life. Russia's lunar mission was planned for October 2021 earlier but was delayed for two years.