Chandrayaan-3: Rover exits Moon lander to explore lunar south pole
Rover’s wheels also designed to leave imprints of India’s national emblem on the Moon’s surface
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Your support makes all the difference.India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission has crossed another milestone with the exit of the mission’s rover from its lander to explore the lunar surface just hours after the country made history with a successful soft landing near the Moon’s uncharted south pole.
The six-wheeled 27kg (60lb) rover – named Pragyan, which means “wisdom” in Sanskrit – rolled out onto the lunar surface at about 1.30am Indian Standard Time on Thursday (8pm GMT Wednesday), using the lander’s ramp, about four hours after Indian space agency Isro achieved the historic Moon landing.
Both the rover and the lander are designed to function for one lunar day, which is about 14 days on Earth.
The rover, designed to move at a speed of 1 cm/s, is equipped with instruments to study the composition of the Moon’s atmosphere. These include the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS).
APXS will analyse the elemental composition of the Moon’s surface and assess the composition of elements like magnesium and aluminium in lunar soil around the landing site.
The rover’s wheels are also designed to leave imprints of Isro and India’s national emblem – the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath – on the lunar surface.
Since the Moon lacks any wind that could disturb its soil, the rover’s imprints are expected to last forever on the lunar surface.
“I once again congratulate the ISRO team and all fellow citizens for successful deployment of Pragyan-rover from inside Vikram-lander. Its rolling out a few hours after the landing of Vikram marked the success of yet another stage of Chandrayan 3,” said India’s president Droupadi Murmu on X, formerly Twitter.
If the rover manages to find water ice on the lunar surface, it could begin a rush to use it as a resource to help extract fuel and oxygen from the Moon.
The estimation of water ice on the lunar surface could also raise hopes for longer-term human presence on the Moon, and facilitate future missions to other planets.
Both the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover are set to conduct science experiments on the Moon at a total cost of about £63m ($82m).
The mission would assess the Moon’s surface thermal properties using an instrument called Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE), and one dubbed ILSA for measuring lunar seismic activity.
They would also conduct ranging studies and analyse the gas and plasma environment of the Moon.
The overall mission has been planned on a restrictive budget of about Rs 6.15 billion or $75m, which is less than the cost of Hollywood science fiction films like Interstellar and Gravity.
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