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India\u2019s Vikram lander on the surface of the moon<\/p>\n
ISRO<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
India\u2019s groundbreaking lunar exploration mission Chandrayaan-3 is officially over, with both the rover and lander entering \u201csleep mode\u201d and preparing for sunset and freezing conditions that could destroy their electronic components. But engineers from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are confident that the rover will boot up once more when the sun rises on the moon in two weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n
The mission gently touched down its Vikram lander near the moon\u2019s south pole on 23 August, making India the first country to explore the region. A six-wheeled rover called Pragyan, which weighs just 26 kilograms, rolled on to the surface and the two solar-powered craft had a single period of daylight \u2013 around 14 Earth days \u2013 to carry out experiments.<\/p>\n
Chandrayaan-3 quickly began providing new scientific data from its numerous instruments, including devices on the lander called ChaSTE, which sampled the temperature of the moon dust below the surface, and ILSA, which recorded seismic activity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The Vikram lander also made a second soft touchdown on the moon in a \u201chop\u201d experiment, ISRO announced in a tweet today<\/a>. Engineers on Earth instructed it to fire its engines, lift off to a height of 40 centimetres and move 30 to 40 centimetres laterally before softly landing again. A video of the test shows the tracks left by the rover quickly being obscured by a cloud of moon dust as the engines fire, then appearing slightly further away once the lander had touched down, cut its engines and allowed the dust to settle.<\/p>\n \n