A day after becoming the first nation to land close to the south pole, India’s Moon spacecraft has made its first contact with the lunar surface.
According to the space agency, Chandrayaan-3’s rover “ramped down” from the lander and “India took a walk on the Moon!”
On Wednesday night as scheduled, the Vikram lander successfully touched down.
With this, India joins the US, the former Soviet Union, and China as the only other nations to successfully conduct a soft landing on the moon.
The Vikram lander’s belly was used to transport the 26 kg Pragyaan (the Sanskrit word for knowledge) rover to the Moon.
In order to allow Pragyaan to glide down to the lunar surface, panels on one side of Vikram opened once the dust from last night’s landing had settled.
Now it will explore the craters and rocks, gathering vital information and taking pictures that will be transmitted back to Earth for study.
In order to investigate the chemical composition of the soil and identify the minerals that are present on the lunar surface, Pragyaan is carrying two scientific equipment.
Pragyaan will only communicate with the lander, which will transmit the data to Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter, which is still revolving about the Moon, for analysis.
According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), the rover will move at a speed of 1 centimetre per second and leave the impression of Isro’s insignia and logo on the Moon’s surface with each stride.
• India makes a historic landing close to the south pole of the moon.
• The race to unravel the mysteries of Moon’s south pole.
The lander is carrying several scientific instruments that will help determine what occurs on the Moon’s surface and above and below it. Because the landing coincidently happened at the beginning of a lunar day, which is equivalent to 28 days on Earth, the lander and rover will have 14 days of sunlight to charge their batteries. Once night falls, however, they will discharge and stop working; it is not yet known whether they will resume functioning when the next lunar day begins.
Although the Moon is believed to contain significant amounts of minerals, one of the main objectives of Chandrayaan-3 is to search for water. According to experts, the enormous craters near the south pole that are always in shadow contain ice that might one day support human habitation on the Moon.
Additionally, it might be used to refuel spaceships travelling to Mars and other far-off planets.
On Wednesday, the lander’s hazardous fall and anxious minutes before touchdown created tension. The lander’s speed was progressively decreased from 1.68 km/s to virtually 0 km/s, allowing it to land gently on the moon’s surface.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that “India is now on the Moon” and that “we have reached where no other country could” as people around the nation celebrated the historic event.
The Luna-25 spacecraft from Russia crashed into the Moon after spinning out of control a few days prior to the landing.
The collision also brought attention to the region’s challenging terrain, which is described as being “very uneven” and “full of potholes and stones.
• The first images from India’s most recent Moon expedition
India’s second lunar mission, which similarly tried to soft-land there in 2019, was a failure. Its lander and rover were destroyed, but its orbiter was still intact. Even now, it is still circling the Moon and assisting the Vikram lander in sending pictures and data back to Earth for study.
There is a rising worldwide interest in the Moon, and several more missions will soon be travelling to its surface, so India is not the only country keeping a watch on it. Additionally, experts claim there is still much to learn about the Moon, which is frequently referred to as a gateway to deep space.
