The mission carried 30 kg (66 lb) of scientific instruments, including a robotic arm for soil samples and possible drilling hardware.

Later work on the lander was slowed by resource pressures being placed upon spacecraft developer NPO Lavochkin, such as the weather satellite Elektro-L No.2 and the Spektr-RG observatory,[15] as well the landing platform Russia was contributing to ExoMars 2020.

[23] ESA's PILOT-D navigation demonstration camera was planned to be flown on this mission, but flew instead with a commercial service provider,[24] due to continued international collaboration having been thrown into doubt by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions on Russia.

[25][26] The demonstration instrument was supposed to collect data for the landing of other missions and was therefore not part of the lander's operating system.

[34] The lander crashed on the lunar surface following the failed maneuver,[11][35][36] which created a trajectory that intersected with the Moon instead of a planned elliptical orbit with a minimum distance of 18 km.

[38] Attempts on 19 and 20 August to locate and re-establish contact with the spacecraft were unsuccessful,[36] and a commission was formed to investigate the crash.