Luna 26 orbiter may operate for up to 3 years - Russian Academy of Sciences

MOSCOW. Nov 7 (Interfax) - The Luna 26 orbiter may operate for two or three years, while the Luna 27 landing craft will be working on the lunar surface for a year, head of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute and the first stage of Russia's lunar program, Academy member Lev Zelyony said in an interview with Interfax.

"The Luna 27 service life is about a year. Luna 25 and Luna 27 are due to have thermal elements powered by nuclear material decay, which will last for about a year. The craft will simply freeze if not heated after sunset," Zelyony said.

"Luna 26 is an orbital mission with a longer service life. It may last for two or three years, but hardly for a decade. The Moon has a very uneven gravitational field with 'holes', which means the orbiter will not take in a circular or elliptical orbit but will be moving as if on a bumpy road. The orbit will have to be adjusted all the time in order to compensate for that, and the fuel supply is naturally limited," he said.

Russia's first lunar mission was launched on August 11, 2023. The Luna 25 automatic interplanetary station took off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome . It was scheduled to land on the Moon's South Pole on August 21, 2023, but crashed on the lunar surface and was lost on August 19.

An interagency commission investigating the Luna 25 accident established that the possible reason for the crash was the abnormal functioning of the station's control unit, which resulted in the failure to turn on the accelerometer unit and prevented the craft engines from being turned off in time.

According to Roscosmos head Yury Borisov, the engine was running for 127 seconds, instead of 84 seconds planned, which was the main cause of the accident.

He said earlier that the Luna 26 mission was planned for 2027, Luna 27 for 2028, and Luna 28 for 2030 or for later.