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Luna 27 is a planned lunar lander mission announced in November 2014 and is a continuation of the Luna-Glob program by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) with collaboration by the European Space Agency (ESA). The mission objective is to send a lunar lander to the South Pole-Aitkin basin, an area on the far side of the moon, with a focus on detecting and characterizing lunar polar volatiles.
The purpose of Lunar 27 is to prospect the Aitkin basin for minerals, volatiles, and lunar water ice in permanently shadowed areas of the moon in order to explore the potential use of natural lunar resources. A long-term goal for Russia is to build a crewed base on the far side of the Moon that would allow scientific and commercial benefits.
European participation received final approval at a meeting of ministers in December 2016. ESA's contributions are planned to include the development of a laser-radar utilized automated landing system and a surveyor system (PROSPECT) for acquiring and analyzing samples from the lunar surface.
Due to funding problems, Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of the Roscosmos State Corporation, announced in April 2019 that the lander mission's launch will be pushed back from 2024 to August 2025.
