Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said Pragyan rover has traversed a distance of eight metres on Moon’s surface, and its payloads have been turned on.
On August 23, 2023, India etched its name in history by becoming the first country to land its spacecraft Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram Lander on the Moon’s South Pole. India is the fourth country to accomplish the feat.
A few hours after the historic landing, the 26-kg six-wheeled ‘Pragyan’ rover rolled out from the lander’s belly.
According to the latest updates from ISRO, the rover has traversed a distance of about eight meters on the lunar surface, and its payloads have been turned on.
A few hours after the soft landing on the Moon on August 23, the ISRO shared first the image captured by Vikram’s camera “It shows a portion of Chandrayaan-3’s landing site. Seen also is a leg and its accompanying shadow. Chandrayaan-3 chose a relatively flat region on the lunar surface,” it said on X (formally Twitter).
The ISRO also said a communication link was established between the lander and the space agency’s Mission Operations Complex (MOX) in Bengaluru. The MOX is located at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC). The ISRO also released images from the Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera taken during the descent to the Moon’s surface.
On August 24 morning, the ISRO said “India took a walk on the moon”, as Chandrayaan-3’s robotic rover rolled out of the lander and commenced mobility operations with all activities on schedule and all systems normal.
The ISRO also said all the Lander Module(LM) payloads have been turned on. “All activities are on schedule. All systems are normal. Lander Module payloads ILSA, RAMBHA and ChaSTE are turned ON today. Rover mobility operations have commenced. SHAPE payload on the Propulsion Module was turned ON on Sunday,” it said in a post on X while giving an update in the same evening.
On August 25, a video of the Pragyan rover rolling out of the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander and walking on the lunar surface was released by the ISRO.
The space agency released another video of how a two-segment ramp facilitated the roll-down of the Pragyan. It said a solar panel enabled the rover to generate power. The video also showed how the rapid deployment of the ramp and solar panel took place, prior to the rolldown of the rover.
In the same evening, the ISRO updated that the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s Pragyan rover has traversed a distance of about eight metres on the lunar surface, and its payloads have been turned on. All payloads on the propulsion module, lander module, and rover are performing nominally, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said.
On August 26, the ISRO said two of the three Chandrayaan-3 mission objectives have been achieved while the third — in-situ scientific experiments — is underway. The national space agency also said all the payloads of Chandrayaan-3 mission are performing normally.