An important step has been reached in India's space programme with the successful landing of the rover Pragyan on the lunar surface as part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. On its official Twitter account, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced the news, writing that "India took a walk on the moon. After landing for a few hours, the 26-kg rover with science packages rolled out of the Vikram lander module. Pragyan's deployment was a success, and President Droupadi Murmu complimented the ISRO team on it while expressing excitement for the data and analysis that Pragyan will collect to advance our knowledge of the moon.
The combined mass of Chandrayaan-3's lander and rover is intended to keep them operational for one lunar day, or roughly 14 days on Earth. Officials from ISRO have not ruled out the possibility that they may continue to operate for another lunar day, though. Using scientific payloads including the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS), the rover will perform in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface and investigate its composition. The short amount of time available on the moon—one day—will be used to conduct these tests.
The successful deployment of Pragyan came after the precise landing of Vikram on the lunar surface at 6:04 p.m. on Wednesday. The Chandrayaan-3 mission intends to investigate the moon in greater detail and collect important information to advance our understanding of Earth's natural satellite. India has made progress in its space exploration efforts with the successful rover deployment.
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