The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has decided to postpone the scheduled waking up or establishing communication with India’s lunar mission Chandrayaan-3‘s solar-powered lander Vikram and rover Pragyan on the moon. The space agency has informed that they will now try to revive Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover on Saturday, 23 September.
ISRO has mentioned that efforts made to communicate with Chandrayaan-3’s lander and rover has resulted in nothing, as the space agency did not receive any signal yet. “”…Efforts are on to establish a contact with the Lander and the Rover. It will automatically revive and send signals. Till now, no signals have come…It has a 50-50 chance if the electronics survive the cold temperature…otherwise, the mission has already done its job…” Director of Space Applications Centre, Nilesh Desai said.
If ISRO is able to revive them tomorrow, as the Sun rises on the Moon again, information that is derived from experiments that could once again be conducted by the Chandrayaan-3 payloads would be a “bonus”.
With sunlight back on the south polar region of the Moon, where both the lander and rover are located, and their solar panels expected to be optimally charged soon, ISRO is now slated to make efforts to establish contact with them again, check their health and ability to resume functioning, and try to revive them.
According to an India Today report, Nilesh Desai, Director of Space Applications Centre said that “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.”
After conducting experiments on the moon from August 23 to September 4, the rover and lander modules of Chandrayaan-3 were put to sleep in a bid to survive the extremely frigid atmosphere at the south pole of the moon.
After landing on the Moon, both the lander and the rover, and payloads onboard had performed experiments one after the other so as to complete them within 14 Earth days (one lunar day), before pitch darkness and extreme cold weather engulfed the Moon.
The lander and rover of Chandrayaan-3 — with a total mass of 1,752 kg — were designed to operate for one lunar daylight period (about 14 Earth days) to study the surroundings on the lunar surface. However ISRO is hoping that they will come back to life when the Sun again rises on the Moon, and carry on with the experiments and studies there.
Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar south pole on August 23, propelling India to an exclusive club of four and making it the first country to land on the uncharted surface.
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Updated: 22 Sep 2023, 10:57 PM IST