“We can only hope to see the equipment back to life on 22nd September,” said ISRO Chairman, S Somanath
The Chandrayaan-3 mission, India’s ambitious lunar exploration project, has been making headlines recently as its lander and rover, Vikram and Pragyan, are on the verge of waking up from a two-week-long lunar night.
Chandrayaan-3, which successfully soft-landed on the moon on 23rd August, 2023, marked a significant achievement for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). However, the mission faced challenges when Vikram and Pragyan entered a dormant phase during the lunar night, where temperatures can plummet to extremely low levels of about -200 degrees Celcius.
ISRO scientists have been diligently working to revive Vikram and Pragyan after their 15-day slumber. The modules were put to sleep one after the other, and the reboot attempt is scheduled for 21st and 22nd September, 2023. As the lunar night is coming to an end, there is optimism that both the lander and rover will fully awaken and resume their scientific activities.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
— ISRO (@isro) September 4, 2023
Vikram Lander is set into sleep mode around 08:00 Hrs. IST today.
Prior to that, in-situ experiments by ChaSTE, RAMBHA-LP and ILSA payloads are performed at the new location. The data collected is received at the Earth.
Payloads are now switched off.… pic.twitter.com/vwOWLcbm6P
The Vikram lander and Pragyan rover are equipped with a range of scientific instruments and are tasked with conducting experiments and collecting valuable data on the moon’s surface. The awakening of these modules will help in contributing to its scientific tasks and sending valuable information back to Earth during the few days left of the mission.
The ISRO team is hoping that the sun rises at Shivshakti Point, which is where the lander and rover are parked since the modules are powered by sunlight. “We can only hope to see the equipment back to life on 22nd September,” said ISRO Chairman, S Somanath. He reportedly added that the equipment will come back to life as soon as the sun rises. If that happens, the rover will start moving as per further commands, followed by the lander module later.
