A scientist who served as a key consultant in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s failed moon mission was hospitalised after Moscow’s first lunar expedition in 47 years, Luna-25, failed, reported the Independent. 90-year-old Mikhail Marov was rushed to a hospital following a “sharp deterioration” in his health after the Luna-25 spacecraft went out of control and crashed into the moon, the report added. Sharing pain over the development, he said that the project has been a matter of his life and how can he not worry about it.
“This was perhaps the last hope for me to see a revival of our lunar programme,” he said, according to Reuters, reported Independent.
He added, “It is so sad that it was not possible to land the apparatus,” after the failure of Luna-25.
Notably, Russia launched Luna-25, its first moon mission after 1976 aiming to land on the lunar south pole, where India’s Chandrayaan-3 is also heading. As per the plan, Luna-25 was planned to land before Chandrayaan-3 making Russia the first country to make a soft-landing on the moon’s south pole.
However, Russia’s state space corporation Roskosmos said it lost contact with the craft at 11.57am (GMT) on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday.
“The apparatus moved into an unpredictable orbit and ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the surface of the Moon,” Roskosmos said in a statement, quoted Independent.
The space agency added that a special inter-departmental commission had been formed to investigate the reasons behind the loss of the Luna-25 craft.
Talking to Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, Marov said that he hoped the reasons behind the crash would be discussed and examined rigorously, as per Independent.
“There was a mistake in the algorithms for launching into near-lunar orbit,” he was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail, as quoted by the Independent.
“For the specialists who will be involved in the work of the commission, this will not be a big problem. I think the answer will be found in the foreseeable future,” he was further quoted as saying.
On his medical condition, Marov told the outlet that he is currently “under observation” as he shared his exasperation over the failure of the mission. “How can I not worry? This has been very much a matter of my life. It’s all very hard,” he added.