Pragyan Rover Captures Stunning Image of Chandrayaan-3 Lander on the Moon

Pragyan Rover Captures Stunning Image of Chandrayaan-3 Lander on the Moon

"Today, the Chandrayaan-3 rover Pragyan shared its very first picture of the Vikram lander. It took this photo using its navigation camera, making it the rover's first image after landing on the moon. Up until now, all the pictures and videos had been taken by Vikram."

"ISRO shared this picture on Twitter and called it the 'image of the mission'."

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

Smile, please📸!

Pragyan Rover clicked an image of Vikram Lander this morning.

The 'image of the mission' was taken by the Navigation Camera onboard the Rover (NavCam).

NavCams for the Chandrayaan-3 Mission are developed by the Laboratory for… pic.twitter.com/Oece2bi6zE

— ISRO (@isro) August 30, 2023

 

"The picture displays the Vikram lander resting on the Moon's surface. Additionally, in the image shared by the Pragyan rover, you can spot ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment), which recently measured the temperature of the lunar South Pole to study how the Moon's surface responds to heat."

"The Indian space agency also mentioned that the NavCams for the Chandrayaan-3 Mission were created by the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS), located at Peenya Industrial Estate in Bengaluru."

"The Chandrayaan-3 mission update arrived when the rover had been active for about half of its expected lifespan on the Moon, which is like 14 Earth days. Unfortunately, both the lander and rover are not expected to last much longer because temperatures drop to -130°C without sunlight during the lunar night."

"The rover has been exploring the Moon's surface, discovering craters and analyzing what the Moon is made of."The rover has a temperature probe that can go 10 cm deep into the ground, and it has 10 small temperature sensors on it.

This new picture follows the rover's discovery of sulfur near the Moon's South Pole just a day ago. The robot also found aluminum, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen, as announced by ISRO yesterday.

"Nilesh Desai, Director of the Space Applications Centre at ISRO, noted that the spectral line of sulfur is clearly visible at the South Pole."

India achieved this remarkable milestone, becoming the fourth country globally and the first to land on the uncharted South Pole of our nearest celestial neighbor, Earth's Moon.