The battery is fully charged and the solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on 22 September, 2023.
Published Sep 03, 2023 | 12:36 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 03, 2023 | 12:36 PM
ISRO released the image of the lander taken by Chandrayaan-2's Orbiter High Resolution Camera (OHRC) after it soft-landed on the Moon's surface. (Supplied)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said late on Saturday, 2 September, that the Pragyan rover of the Chandrayaan-3 mission had been set into “sleep” mode.
Chandrayaan 3’s rover “Pragyan” has completed its assignments on the lunar surface and set into sleep mode, ISRO said on Saturday.
The space agency’s announcement came hours after its chief S Somanath said the lunar mission’s rover and lander, “Pragyan” and “Vikram”, respectively were functioning well and they would be put to “sleep” soon to withstand the night on the Moon.
“The Rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander,” ISRO said in an update on social media platform X.
At present, the battery is fully charged and the solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on 22 September, 2023.
“The receiver is kept on. Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments! Else, it will forever stay there as India’s lunar ambassador,” it said.
Somanath had said that the rover had moved almost 100 metres from the lander earlier in the day.
“And we are going to start the process of making both of them sleep in the coming one or two days because they have to withstand the night,” he said.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
The Rover completed its assignments.It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode.
APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off.
Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander.Currently, the battery is fully charged.
The solar panel is…— ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023
Meanwhile, the ILSA payload on the Chandrayaan-3 Lander to study lunar seismic activity has not only recorded the movements of the rover and other payloads but also has recorded an event, appearing to be a natural one, on 26 August.
“The source of this event is under investigation,” ISRO said.
Another instrument onboard the rover Pragyan has confirmed the presence of Sulphur (S) in the Lunar region, through a different technique, ISRO said.
The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectroscope (APXS) has detected S and other minor elements.
“This finding by Ch-3 compels scientists to develop fresh explanations for the source of Sulphur (S) in the area: intrinsic?, volcanic?, meteoritic?….?”, read the post.
ISRO released a video showing an automated hinge mechanism rotating the 18 cm tall APXS, aligning the detector head to be approximately 5 cm in proximity to the lunar surface.
India on 23 August scripted history as ISRO’s ambitious third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Module (LM) touched down on the lunar surface, making it only the fourth country to accomplish the feat, and the first to reach the uncharted south pole of Earth’s only natural satellite.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 26 August announced the decision to name the spot where the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram Lander made a soft landing as “Shiv Shakti Point” and the site where the Chandrayaan-2 lander crash-landed on the Moon’s surface in 2019 as “Tiranga Point”.
Also, 23 August, the day the Chandrayaan-3 Lander touched down on the lunar surface, would be celebrated as National Space Day, Modi said.
This achievement made India the fourth country in the world — following the erstwhile Soviet Union, the US, and China — to successfully achieve a gentle landing on the Moon.
(With PTI inputs)
