Pragyan Rover rolls out near Moon’s South Pole: What is it and what will it do
Pragyan is derived from Sanskrit word which means wisdom. Pragyan is a six-wheeled rover designed to carry out series of experiments on the surface of the Moon. As per NASA, The rover has a rectangular chassis, 91.7 x 75.0 x 39.7 cm in size, mounted on a six-wheel rocker-bogie wheel drive assembly.
It has navigation cameras and a solar panel that can generate 50 W and communicates directly with the lander via Rx/Tx antennas. The six wheeled rover will study the surface of the moon for several elements including magnesium, silicon, potassium, calcium and iron. It will also assist in understanding the Moon's atmosphere, and day and night cycles.
According to ISRO, Lander and the Rover have five scientific payloads which have been placed inside the Lander Module (LM). Rover's Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) will be used to derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further enhance the understanding of the lunar surface. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) will determine the elemental composition of the lunar soil and rocks around the Moon's landing site.
The deployment of Rover to carry out in-situ scientific experiments would scale new heights in lunar expeditions, ISRO said. The Lander Payloads are RAMBHA-LP (Langmuir Probe), to measure the near surface plasma (ions and electrons) density and its changes with time. ChaSTE Chandra's Surface Thermo Physical Experiment will carry out the measurements of thermal properties of lunar surface near polar region.
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