#ISRO, #PragyanRover, #Chandrayaan3, #Moon, #LanderVikram
Bengaluru/IBNS: India’s space agency ISRO has shared a video of the Pragyan rover being rotated on the Moon’s surface as a part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which was remotely controlled from the command centre in Bengaluru, in search of a route that avoids craters and rocks on the lunar surface.
The rover and Vikram, the lander carrying Pragyan to the Moon, are racing to finish experiments before a lunar night (14 Earth days) sets next week.
“The rover was rotated in search of a safe route. The rotation was captured by a Lander Imager Camera,” the Indian Space Research Organisation posted on X (formerly Twitter).
“It feels as though a child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama, while the mother watches affectionately…”
This latest update from the Moon comes a day after Pragyan shared an image of Vikram – the first using its NavCam, or navigation camera, and the first since it was deployed.
On Monday, ISRO shared a “re-route” update from the Moon, noting Pragyan had been sent on a different, and safer, path, after coming face-to-face with a four-meter diameter crater.
India created history on August 23 after Chandrayaan-3’s module -Vikram – made a soft landing on the Lunar surface making India the fourth country – after the United States, China, and Russia – to achieve this feat and the first to go as close as it did to the Moon’s South Pole.
The country is now gearing up for its next big space mission to be launched on Saturday – Aditya L1 – which will orbit the Sun and observe solar activities and their effects on space weather in real time.
