Smile, please! Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan Rover shares first image of Vikram Lander on lunar surface

The Pragyan Rover which is currently on the moon surveying the lunar surface shared the firstimageof Vikram Lander on Wednesday (August 30).

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in a tweet shared the news. Its post with images on microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter), read, "Smile, please! Pragyan Rover clicked an image of Vikram Lander this morning. The 'image of the mission' was taken by the Navigation Camera onboard the Rover (NavCam). NavCams for the Chandrayaan-3 Mission are developed by the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS)."

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This comes as the Rover discovered several chemical elements on the lunar surface.

While conducting the experiments, the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument onboard found sulphur.

"These in-situ measurements confirm the presence of Sulphur (S) in the region unambiguously, something that was not feasible by the instruments onboard the orbiters," it said.

Not only Sulphur (S), the LIBS also found the presence of aluminium(Al), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), and titanium (Ti) on the lunar surface.The quest for Hydrogen is underway.

The lunar Rover is currently on a 14-day mission to study the moon. Until now, the mission has achieved two of its objectives: a demonstration of a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface and the rover roving on the moon. Conductingin-situ scientific experiments is underway.

What is Vikram Lander?

Vikram is the lander of the Chandrayaan-3 softly landed on the south pole of the moon carrying the Pragyan rover. The lander has 4 payloads- RAMBHA to measure the near-surface plasma density, ChaSTE to measure the thermal properties of the soil, ILSA to measure the seismicity around the landing site and LRA to understand the dynamics of the lunar system.

Giving an update, the space agency said that all payloads are performing normally.

After 14 days, Vikram Lander and Pragyan could livelongerif they survive the lunar night.

(With inputs from agencies)

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