Despite sanctions, in the early hours of Friday morning, Roscosmos launched the country's first lunar mission in over half a century as an ambitious play in the race to establish a lunar base.

“If they pull it off, it will be a massive technological and scientific achievement,” said Tim Marshall, author of "The Future of Geography" on the geopolitics of space. He claims that a successful Russian landing and a productive year of study would be a significant step forward in ambitions to establish a lunar base with China by the 2030s.

The Luna-25 mission from Russia has been sent to investigate the lunar south pole, where experts believe there is a vast supply of water trapped in ice in the continuous shade of mountain peaks.

Building up water reserves is important for supporting life on the moon with breathable oxygen, drinking water, and even rocket fuel, which would then allow space-faring nations to further explore the cosmos from any future lunar base.

Read next: US 'ready to fight' China, Russia in space race using military means

“The first goal is to find the water, to confirm that it is there ... to study its abundance," said Olga Zakutnyaya, from the Space Research Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, of Luna-25's main aim.

However, simply landing a spacecraft on the rough lunar south pole – a first — would demonstrate to Beijing that Moscow still has something to offer in terms of cutting-edge aerospace technology. The two countries have already agreed to collaborate on the construction of a moon base by the 2030s, although Beijing is the clear leader these days.

Marshall believes that "Putin knows that Russia is the junior partner in the China relationship, including in the space relationship," arguing that the Luna-25 mission could help rebalance the scales.

On the other side of the geopolitical divide, the United States is planning to send astronauts to the lunar south pole later this decade as part of its Artemis program supported by Canada and European countries.

Only three countries — the United States, China, and Russia — have successfully landed spacecraft on the moon.

Read next: SpaceX announces 22 additional Starlink satellites launched in orbit