this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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A couple years back, Putin promised to put a Russian on the moon. A good question is "with what rocket?"
Turns out, an even better question is "with what communications system?" A factor in this crash is that they lack a round-the-world comm system. They can only communicate when the moon is visible over Russia. It's a big country, of course, but not big enough for 24/7 communication.
Probably Yenisei which unfortunately had its development paused.
They've had this with GLONASS for over a decade. For far-side communications, you need a single relay satellite like what China used for Chang’e-4. However, you don't actually need either of those for many lunar missions. When the Americans sent humans to the moon, they just used radio waves that were picked up from various ground stations across the world.
GLONASS is a GPS navigation system, not a communication system. And the problem is not communicating with places on Earth, the problem is the lack of systems capable of communicating with the Moon.
Okay I guess they could build ground stations outside the country if more coverage was desired.
Sure, but they haven't. The main reason being the lack of close allies with wide geographic distribution to locate those stations on and the lack of resources to spend on doing that kind of thing.