Chandrayaan-3: ISRO hopes mission life of lander and rover will not be limited to one lunar day
Chandrayaan-3's lander and rover on the moon, ISRO is hoping that their mission life will not be limited to one lunar day or 14 earth days, and that they will come back to life when the sun again rises on the Moon, to carry on with the experiments and studies there.
Following the deployment of the lander and rover, the systems on them are now ready to perform experiments one after the other so as to complete them within 14 earth days, before the pitch darkness and extreme cold weather engulfs the Moon.
The lander (Vikram) touched down near the south pole of the Moon at 6.04 pm on Wednesday, successfully completing one of the Chandrayaan-3 mission's stated objectives of soft landing on lunar surface.
Earlier today ISRO announced that the rover (Pragyan) rolled down from the lander, stating, "India took a walk on the Moon."
ISRO had earlier said the 26 kg six-wheeled rover was scheduled to descend from the lander's belly on to the Moon's surface, using one of its side panels which acts as a ramp.
The lander and rover — with a total mass of 1,752 kg — are designed to operate for one lunar daylight period (about 14 Earth days) to study the surroundings there.
However, ISRO officials do not rule out the possibility of them coming back to life for another lunar day.
Explaining what would happen after the lander's soft landing and deployment of the rover, ISRO Chairman S Somnath had earlier said, «After this, all the experiments (by payloads on lander and rover) will take place one after the other — all of which have to be completed in just one day on the Moon, which is 14 (Earth) days.»
Noting that as long as the sun shines, all the systems will have its power, he said, «The moment the sun sets, everything will be in pitch
