Russian lunar mission failed due to outdated technology, software: ISRO scientist

India’s Moon mission Chandrayaan-3 scripted history by successfully landing on the lunar surface on August 23. With the lander accomplishing a ‘soft landing’ on the Moon’s south pole, India became the only country ever to do so.

The Russian spacecraft, however, was scheduled to reach the Moon a few days ahead of Chandrayaan-3. “Suddenly, Russia announced its decision to land on the south pole and we thought we were destined to come second as Russia had access to better technology and machinery,” he said.

“They (Russia) started (the mission) on August 10; it was a very smooth launch; everything went on perfectly. Then, on August 19, they suddenly announced their computer developed some anomaly, so they could not control the engine, but they were working on that and trying to solve it. Then on August 20, the news came that (Luna-25) crash-landed on the Moon’s surface,” he said.

“Thus, India was destined to land in the south pole (first) and we succeeded. It was a classic case of tortoise and hare,” he said.

“Afterwards, I was discussing with my chairman why this happened (with Russia). Of course, they are ahead of us, but they are poor in software and electronics and that led to the doom of this particular mission,” he added.

Desai said the ISRO chose the Moon’s south pole because it had not been explored much because of the region’s topography full of craters. Israeli and Japanese missions to the Moon’s south pole had failed earlier.

Talking about the failure of the Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019, Desai said there was a software error in the programme controlling the engine that failed to de-accelerate the engine. He noted that multiple changes were made in the spacecraft design to ensure the proper landing of Chandrayaan-3.

Talking about future missions, Desai said they have plans for a joint mission with Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). This mission will see the ISRO providing the lander while JAXA provides a 350 kg rover. The life of this mission is expected to be 100 days, and it would explore areas at poles.