Chandrayaan-3: Pragyan rover moves 100 m away from lander, both put to ‘sleep’ as lunar night nears

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which on Saturday (September 2) marked another milestone with the launch of its solar mission, Aditya -L1, also gave us an important update about its moon mission Chandrayaan-3 and said that the Pragyan rover has successfully traversed 100 metres on the lunar surface. 

Both Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover are arguably the two most important components of the country’s lunar mission. In a recent update, ISRO said the latter which is crawling on its six independently movable wheels on the lunar surface has moved 100 metres away from the former. 

The Indian Space agency after announcing the successful launch of Aditya L-1, on X (formerly known as Twitter) said, “Meanwhile, over the Moon, Pragyan Rover has traversed over 100 meters and continuing.” 

They also posed an image of the path taken by the Pragyan rover and showed the total traverse distance as 101.4 metres. 
 

The rover, equipped with a number of scientific instruments to collect data from the lunar surface, travelled southeast after stepping out of the Vikram lander and also managed to dodge a massive lunar crater with a diameter of four metres. 

Lander and rover on 'sleep mode'

After the successful launch of India’s solar mission, ISRO chief Dr S Somnath said that as the moon mission is approaching the conclusion of its planned exploration period of one lunar day (14 Earth days) they are now going to put both Vikram lander and Pragyan rover on “sleep mode” to withstand the night on the lunar surface. 

ALSO READ | Aditya L-1 launch: India's solar mission lifts off, takes country closer to sun after moon landmark

“The good news is that the rover has moved almost 100 metres from the lander and we are going to start the process of making both of them sleep in the coming one or two days because they have to withstand the night,” said the ISRO chief. 

This comes as temperatures during the lunar night are expected to plummet below -200 degrees Celsius, said Dr Somanath, on Saturday. 

In an update later that evening, ISRO took to X and wrote, "The Rover completed its assignments". 

It added, "It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. APXS (Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer) and LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope) payloads are turned off," referring to the rover's instruments for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site.

"Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander," said the Indian space agency. Speaking about the current status of the payloads ISRO said that the battery is fully charged and "The solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is kept on." 

The Indian space agency also said that it is hoping for a "successful awakening" for further assignment or else "it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador."

Chandrayaan-3 mission has made India the first nation to land a spacecraft on the unexplored South Pole of the moon and just the fourth nation to land on Earth’s lunar satellite. 

The rover and Vikram, the lander that transported Pragyan to the Moon, are rushing to complete their experiments before the upcoming lunar night. 

Over the period of its two-week lifespan, rover Pragyan will amble around the relatively unmapped South Pole and transmit images and scientific data to Earth.

(With inputs from agencies) 

 

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.