India: India’s Moon rover Pragyan has taken its first step on the Moon after Chandrayaan-3’s successful soft landing on the lunar surface. The successful landing made India the 4th nation to soft land on the Moon and the first country to land on the unexplored south pole of Earth’s only natural satellite.
The Indian space agency, Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has announced that Chandrayaan-3’s rover “ramped down” from the lander and “India took a walk on the Moon!”
India has officially joined the elite club of countries to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the US, the former Soviet Union, and China.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
Chandrayaan-3 ROVER:
Made in India ??
Made for the MOON?!The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander and
India took a walk on the moon !More updates soon.#Chandrayaan_3#Ch3
— ISRO (@isro) August 24, 2023
Pragyan carries two scientific tools designed to identify lunar surface minerals and analyse soil.
Chandrayaan-3 landed on the south pole on 23rd August 2023, in the evening. India’s second moon landing attempt, achieved with a budget of approximately $74.58 million, comes after a previous mission in 2019, Chandrayaan-2, which successfully placed an orbiter in lunar orbit but ended in a crash landing.
The moon’s challenging southern pole, known for its valuable water ice, is highly researched for its potential to supply fuel, oxygen, and drinking water for upcoming missions. However, the rough landscape has significant landing difficulties.
Chandrayan-3 is expected to function for 14 days of on-the-moon experiments, including a spectrometer analysis of the lunar surface’s mineral composition.
Pragyan will communicate with the Vikram lander, which will then transmit the data to the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter currently orbiting the Moon. The orbiter will subsequently relay this information to Earth for analysis.
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