ISRO makes efforts to establish communication with Vikram lander, Pragyan rover

Taking a step ahead in its Chandrayaan-3 mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday made efforts to establish communication with the Pragyan rover and Vikram lander to understand their wake-up condition, however, they did not receive any signal as of yet. The Indian Space Agency, however, stated that it will continue to make efforts to establish contact with them.

"Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Efforts have been made to establish communication with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to ascertain their wake-up condition. As of now, no signals have been received from them. Efforts to establish contact will continue," wrote ISRO on X (formerly Twitter).

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Earlier it was reported, that the plans of waking up the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover on the Moon have been postponed by the space agency. Originally, it had planned to reactivate both the spacecraft on the evening of September 22, 2023, however, because of some reasons, the ISRO later decided to postpone the attempt to September 23.

Speaking to the Indian news agency ANI, Director of Space Applications Centre Nilesh Desai said that the delay was important to ensure the spacecraft's safety. He stated that tests and simulations are still being conducted by ISRO to ensure that the reactivation procedure turns out to be successful.

"Earlier we planned to reactivate the (Pragyan) rover and (Vikram) lander on the evening of 22nd September, but due to some reasons we will now do it tomorrow on September 23," Desai stated.  

Chandrayaan-3 mission's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, which landed successfully on the surface of the moon on August 23, at a location which was given the name 'Shiv Shakti Point', is likely to now be reactivated on September 23.

Earlier this month, the scientists placed the rover and lander in sleep mode after conducting experiments successfully on the lunar surface. 

The Pragyan rover went into sleep mode on September 2, which was followed by the Vikram lander on September 4.

When the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover were in the operational phase, they executed numerous lunar experiments. 

After covering a distance of over 100 meters on the lunar surface, the Pragyan rover confirmed the presence of Sulphur (S) in the lunar surface near the moon's south pole. 

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