India made history on August 23, 2023, when it became the first country to land its spacecraft Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander on the Moon’s south pole. India is among the four nations to have achieved this achievement.
The 26-kg six-wheeled ‘Pragyan’ rover emerged from the lander’s belly a few hours after the momentous landing. According to the most recent information from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the rover has traveled about eight meters on the lunar surface and its payloads have been activated.
So far, here is what we know about Chandrayaan-3’s voyage on the Moon:
1. The image obtained by Vikram’s camera was initially posted by the ISRO a few hours after the soft landing on the Moon on August 23. “It depicts a portion of the landing site of Chandrayaan-3.” A leg and its shadow are also visible. “Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface,” the spacecraft said on X
2. The ISRO also announced the establishment of a communication link between the lunar lander and the space agency’s Mission Operations Complex (MOX) in Bengaluru. The ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC) hosts the MOX. The ISRO also published photos from the Lander’s Horizontal Velocity Camera, which was used to track the spacecraft’s descent to the Moon’s surface.
3. On August 24, the ISRO announced that “India took a walk on the moon,” when Chandrayaan-3’s robotic rover rolled out of the lander and began mobility operations, with all activities on time and all systems operating normally.
4. The ISRO also said that all of the Lander Module (LM) payloads had been activated. “Everything is running on time. All systems are operating normally. Today, the Lander Module payloads ILSA, RAMBHA, and ChaSTE are activated. The Rover mobility operations have begun. “The SHAPE payload on the Propulsion Module was turned on on Sunday,” it announced in a post on X that evening while providing an update.
5. On August 25, the ISRO published a video of the Pragyan rover rolling out of the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander and strolling on the lunar surface.
6. The space agency published another video showing how a two-segment ramp helped the Pragyan slide down. According to the report, the rover generates electricity thanks to a solar panel. The video also demonstrated how the ramp and solar panel were quickly deployed before to the rover’s roll-down.
7. That evening, the ISRO reported that the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s Pragyan rover had traveled around eight meters on the lunar surface and that its payloads had been activated. According to the Bengaluru-based national space agency, all payloads on the propulsion module, lander module, and rover are operating normally.
8. On August 26, the ISRO announced that two of the three Chandrayaan-3 mission objectives had been met, with the third – in-situ scientific investigations – now continuing. The National Space Agency also stated that all payloads on the Chandrayaan-3 project are functioning correctly.
9. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the place where the Vikram lander achieved a soft landing would be designated as “Shiv Shakti Point,” and that the site where the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft crashed landed on the Moon’s surface in 2019 would be known as “Tiranga Point.”
10. Modi also declared August 23, the day the Chandrayaan-3 lander landed down on the lunar surface, to be “National Space Day.”
‘We are looking forward to the next 13-14 days with bated breath,’ said ISRO chief.
ISRO chairman S Somanath said on Saturday that most of the scientific mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 have been accomplished and that the ISRO team is looking forward to the remaining 13-14 days.
“Most of the scientific mission objectives will now be met.” Lander and Rover have all been turned on. I understand that all of the scientific evidence seems quite promising. However, we will continue to collect a large amount of data from the Moon during the next 14 days. And we aim to achieve a significant scientific advance in the process. So we’re looking forward to the next 13-14 days with bated breath,” Somanath remarked.
Somnath arrived in Kerala for the first time following the momentous achievement of the moon mission.
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When asked about Aditya-L1, India’s first space-based observatory to study the sun, Somnath claimed it was ready and had arrived in Sriharikota.
The launch is scheduled for the first week of September, with the exact date to be revealed in two days.
