NASA has spotted a new small crater on the surface of the Moon that was probably caused by a Russia probe crash landing on the surface about two weeks ago.
The spotting was found by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) by comparing before and after pictures of the estimated hit point, delivered by the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
The crashing of Luna-25 occurred on August 19, which shattered Russia’s expectations of restoring its extended dormant Moon schedule with the first-ever soft landing on the lunar south pole.
That honor went instead to India, which landed its Chandrayaan-3 mission on August 23 successfully and is currently studying the polar region with its Pragyan rover.
LRO, which has been present in orbit over the Moon since 2009, brought its most current “before” picture in June 2022. This was compared to a picture taken on August 24, 2023.
NASA’s statement says that Since this new crater is near the Luna 25 estimated hit point, the LRO group figures it is likely to be from that mission, rather than a natural impactor.
The new crater is almost 10 meters (32 feet) in diameter, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) short of Luna-25’s planned landing point.
NASA also intends to return to the Moon under its Artemis program, with the purpose of creating a sustained existence. Ice deposits could be used to support human habitats, or split down into hydrogen and oxygen for utilization as rocket fuel.
