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Chandrayaan-3 : ISRO guns for a 'bonus achievement', another dawn on the moon
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Following the roaring success of India's lunar mission Chandrayaan-3's successful soft landing on the Moon's southern pole, making India the first ever country to do so, ISRO is now gunning for a 'bonus achievement.' Indian Space Research Organisation is hoping to revive the lander and the rover after the entire configuration was put to sleep in the beginning of September after having worked for a good 14 Earth days. The rover went to sleep on September 2, while the lander went to sleep on September 4, citing the terrible cold conditions that occur on the lunar surface due to the absence of sunlight.
With a new lunar dawn on the horizon on Friday, ISRO is preparing to attempt to reawaken the lander and rover, which wasn't a part of the initial mission. The goal is now to see if the equipment survived the harsh cold conditions of the moon. The mission was meant to run for one lunar daylight period in order to examine the environment on the southern pole of the moon. Now, ISRO hopes that they would be able to reactivate the rover and the lander when the Sun rises on the Moon and continue with the tests and research there.
"We have to wait and see. It has undergone a lunar night. Now the lunar day starts. So, now they will try to wake up. If all the systems are functioning, it will be alright...This is not the end, a lot more new Sciences will come. Even now the Chandrayaan-1's data has brought in a lot of discoveries. So, I hope that a lot of new things will come. Scientists will keep trying. So, this is not the end of the story", said the former ISRO Chairman K Sivan, hopeful of a successful reactivation of the lunar mission.
The equipment onboard the Vikram Lander and the Pragyan Rover was put to sleep in a staged manner beginning on September 2, the batteries which are powered by sunlight, were left charged, and the solar panels were orientated in such a way that they receive light at dawn. In its previous cycle, some paradigm shifting scientific discoveries were made by rover and the lander, which includes the discovery of Sulphur on the southern hemisphere of the moon.
