New Delhi: ISRO announced on Saturday, September 02, that Pragyan Rover has successfully completed its mission. The rover has been parked safely and switched to sleep mode. The two scientific instruments on board, APXS and LIBS, have also been turned off. The data collected by these instruments has been transmitted to Earth via the lander.
ISRO also said that the rover’s battery is fully charged. The rover has been oriented to face the direction where the next sunrise will occur on the moon on September 22, 2023. This will ensure that the solar panels will receive direct sunlight. The rover’s receiver is currently on ON-MODE. It is expected to resume its operation on September 22.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission lasted for only 14 days. This is because the moon has a day-night cycle of 14 days each. The rover-lander can generate power from sunlight, but when night falls, the power generation process will stop. In such a situation, the electronics will not be able to survive the extreme cold and will get damaged.
According to ISRO’s previous information, the rover has traveled 100 meters from the Shivshakti landing site. ISRO also shared a graph of the distance between the lander and the rover. The Vikram Lander had landed on the moon on August 23. The rover took about 10 days to cover this distance.
