- By Anushka Vats
- Thu, 21 Sep 2023 02:48 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
The Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover of Chandrayaan-3, who are currently near the Moon’s South Pole in sleep mode are likely to wake up on Friday. Since the life of the spacecraft was only 14 days, it stopped working after that, said Bhubaneswar-based space scientist Suvendu Patnayak.
"The Chandrayaan-3 landed successfully and it worked for almost 14 days. It was designed to work for 14 days (on the moon). Its life period was only 14 days because the moon's temperature falls down to (-) 250 degrees during the (lunar) nighttime. So it worked during the sun hours or daytime and during that it had already given all the data (it was supposed to)," he said.
He also added that it is very difficult for a few electronic components to work in such a huge range of temperatures. However, few scientists are still hoping that it may work again, and if it starts working again, it will be a boon for us and we will perform the same experiments again and again, he said.
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On August 23, India scripted history after the Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully landed on the moon's South Pole, making India the first country to have achieved the historic feat and bringing to an end the disappointment over the crash landing of the Chandrayaan-2, four years ago.
The stated objectives of Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission were a safe and soft landing, rover roving on the Moon's surface, and in-situ scientific experiments.
In early September, the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover were set in "sleep mode", with ISRO expecting awakening around September 22.
The Vikram Lander had also successfully undergone a hop experiment, in which it had likely experimented possibility of relaunching it from the lunar surface. The lander elevated itself by about 40 cm and landed safely at a distance of 30-40 cm away.
(With ANI inputs)
