NEW DELHI, Aug 25: The Indian Space research Organisation on Friday shared the first images taken by lander “Vikram” and rover “Pragyan” after Chandrayann-3’s flawless soft-landing on the moon surface on Wednesday fulfilling the dreams of a billion Indians anxiously waiting for the moment.
Lander Vikram took images and a video of its ramp as the Pragyan rover was at its snail’s pace. Sharing the video in a tweet, ISRO wrote, “… and here is how the Chandrayaan-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander to the Lunar surface.”
The ISRO also said the Chandrayaan-3 rover, ‘Pragyaan’, has successfully traversed a distance of about eight metres and its payloads have been turned on. “All planned rover movements have been verified. The rover has successfully traversed a distance of about 8 metres. Rover payloads LIBS and APXS are turned on,” the space agency said in a post on X. “All payloads on the propulsion module, lander module, and rover are performing nominally,” it added.
The Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) is aiming at deriving the chemical composition and infer the mineralogical composition of the lunar surface. The Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) will attempt to determine the elemental composition (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Fe) of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site.
ISRO on Thursday had said the Lander payloads ILSA, RAMBHA and ChaSTE were turned on. ILSA will measure seismic activity around the landing site and RAMBHA will study the plasma environment around the Moon. Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) will measure surface thermal properties of the Moon.
Chandrayaan-3 successfully performed a soft landing on the moon at 6.04 pm on Wednesday making India the fourth country to have successfully landed on the lunar surface. After nearly 4 hours, the Pragyan rover came out on the surface, the moment that has been captured in the latest video shared by ISRO. The first track marks by the Pragyan rover are now etched on the moon’s surface for eternity.
The colour video released by the Indian space agency also shows that the solar panel of the Pragyan rover is receiving sunlight and a beautiful shadow of the Pragyan rover can also be seen on the lunar surface. Chandrayaan-3’s achievement was also special considering that no other country had been able to achieve a soft-landing on the South Pole. The South Pole – far from the equatorial region targeted by previous missions, including the crewed Apollo landings – is full of craters and deep trenches.
On closer examination, it also shows that Vikram has selected the area for landing which seems relatively plain and should give Pragyan the opportunity to do its moonwalk.
The sunlight on the moon where Vikram has landed will last for 14 days, and the rover has already started a series of scientific experiments. The findings from the Chandrayaan-3 mission could advance and expand knowledge of lunar water ice, potentially one of the moon’s most valuable resources.
(Manas Dasgupta)