Chandrayaan-3: Sunrise on Shiv Shakti Point, ISRO gears up to wake up Vikram, Pragyan
The pair has been dormant on the Moon's Shiv Shakti point for about half a month, enduring temperatures as low as -200 degrees Celsius.
Since their August 23 landing at the lunar south pole, the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover have been conducting a number of experiments.
On September 21, as the sun rises over the lunar south pole, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will attempt to re-establish contact with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover of its Chandrayaan-3 mission.
The pair has been dormant on the Moon's Shiv Shakti point for about a month, enduring subzero temperatures of -200 degrees Celsius. However, their operational circumstances should get better as the sun rises.
India Today reported that the Chandrayaan-3 landing site in the south polar region of the Moon is now experiencing sunrise. The organization is awaiting battery recharging. According to the report, officials expressed optimism that Vikram and Pragyan's communications would soon be resumed.
According to Hindustan Times, Vikram and Pragyan were put to sleep gradually beginning on September 2. The solar panels were positioned so that they would receive light at dawn and the batteries, which are powered by sunlight, were left charged. The lander and rover will need heat to operate, which the sunrise will provide.
In a perfect world, after the lander and rover's systems are brought back to life with commands, the rover would start exploring the lunar surface once more and the lander's instrumentation would resume data collection. Isro Chairman S. Somanath told the website, "We can only hope to see the equipment back in life on September 22."
The success of Chandrayaan 3 will have a major positive impact: FM Sitharaman Since the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover landed on the Moon's South Pole on August 23rd, a series of experiments have taken place. They've measured the density of electrons in the lunar ionsosphere, and have also been measuring surface temperature on the moon. Even the first image of Vikram's lander on the lunar surface has been captured by a Pragyan rover.
But it was the night of the Moon that put a stop to operations. They couldn't have kept their systems running without sunlight because of the lack of power from photovoltaic batteries. India became the fourth country, after the US, China, and Russia, to successfully land on the surface of the Moon and the first to land on the South Pole of the Moon, thanks to the Chandrayaan 3 mission.
