India and Russia are sending landers to spots near the south pole, which has water ice that might one day be mined to make rocket fuel.
Russia and India are landing close to the moon's south pole. Researchers believe water ice hidden in craters could one day supply lunar colonies with vital resources.Russia and India are landing close to the moon's south pole. Researchers believe water ice hidden in craters could one day supply lunar colonies with vital resources.Russia and India are just days away from attempting to land robotic missions near the south pole of the moon.
The south pole may seem like the coolest place to land on the moon right now — China and NASA are planning to send their own missions to the area too — but it also hosts some of the coolest places, literally. That's because"Those areas never see sunlight, and thus they're just extremely cold," says Denevi.
The Luna-25 mission took off in August from a launch pad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia's Far East.Roscosmos State Space Corporation/via AP This mission has been in planning since the late 1990s, Zak says. It's a relatively small four-legged lander with a robotic arm it can use to collect surface samples.
"You have to make a lot of sophisticated calculations as you come in for landing to fire those thrusters just right," Davis says."There's not a lot of margin for error."
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