- Chandrayaan-3 Pragyan rover redirected due to moon crater.
- Rover exploring uncharted area, transmitting data over two weeks.
- India’s success as fourth nation to land on moon’s south pole.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has confirmed that the Chandrayaan-3 Pragyan rover encountered a substantial crater on the moon’s surface. ISRO redirected the rover to a safer location after it identified the crater just three meters from the edge.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
On August 27, 2023, the Rover came across a 4-meter diameter crater positioned 3 meters ahead of its location.
The Rover was commanded to retrace the path.It’s now safely heading on a new path.#Chandrayaan_3#Ch3 pic.twitter.com/QfOmqDYvSF
— ISRO (@isro) August 28, 2023
The solar-powered rover will explore the relatively uncharted area over a two-week period, transmitting images and scientific data. Nilesh M. Desai, Director of Space Applications Centre (SAC), emphasized the urgency of the mission, with only 10 days left until the end of a lunar day.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission has already achieved its primary goals of a gentle moon landing and successful rover maneuvering. The lander module is carrying out planned experiments, and ISRO has shared a temperature change graph for the lunar surface. Notably, India became the fourth country, after the US, China, and Russia, to successfully land on the moon’s south pole on August 23.