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Chandrayaan 3- ISRO tweets a video of the Vikram Lander, captured by the Pragyan Rover
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Taking to X, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) shared a video of the Vikram Lander, captured by the Pragyan Rover using its NavCam or Navigational Camera. "The rover was rotated in search of a safe route. The rotation was captured by a Lander Imager Camera. It feels as though a child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama while the mother watches affectionately...” tweeted ISRO.
The Pragyan Rover traversing through the unchartered territory of the lunar surface is remotely controlled from Bengaluru. In the video that ISRO shared, the rover can be seen rotating on the surface of the moon, searching for a route devoid of craters and large rocks. While recording the surroundings, it also recorded the Vikram Lander that carried the rover in its belly to the lunar surface.
India’s lunar mission, Chandrayaan -3, entailing the Vikram Lander and the Pragyaan Rover has been sent to the Southern Pole of the moon for one lunar day, which translates to 14 days on Earth. In these 14 days, the rover is expected to carry out a series of experiments and collect vital information pertaining to the moon for future missions.
ISRO’s latest update about the activities of the Pragyan Rover comes a few days after it detected the presence of Sulphur on the lunar surface, near the Southern Pole using the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope on Tuesday. The in-situ instruments loaded on the rover have “unambiguously” confirmed the presence of sulfur, something that the onboard orbiters cannot detect. ISRO has also informed that oxygen, chromium, iron, calcium, aluminum, manganese, titanium and silicone have also been detected. The rover’s search for hydrogen near the southern pole still continues.
Previously, ISRO had shared an image of a “re-route” undertaken by the Pragyan Rover after it had come face-to-face with a four-meter diameter crater. It had gauged the crater from a safe distance of 3 meters.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 successfully soft-landed on the moon, making India the 4th country after China, the United States, and Russia to reach the lunar surface, and the first nation to reach the Southern pole of the moon. After the moon, ISRO aims for the sun with their Aditya L, slated to launch on Saturday. The solar mission is aimed at observing solar activities and their impact on the Earth in real-time.
