Pragyan rover takes a walk on the moon's surface, here's the latest update

Chandrayaan-3 softly landed on the moon's surface on Wednesday at 6.05 p.m. Vikram Lander shared the Pragyan rover image, check the latest update about the mission here

Proud moment for India as Chandrayaan-3 rover ramped down from the lander, Isro stated in its tweet early this morning. The probe made a soft landing on the moon's south pole region on Wednesday at 6.05 p.m., and with this achievement, India became the only nation to achieve this feat.

Before India, three nations, the US, Russia and China, have landed on the moon, but none of them have landed on the South Pole region. 

The latest update from Isro is that the Pragyan rover took a walk on the moon, and it began exploration on the moon's surface. More updates are expected to come from Isro. 

 

The failure of the last mission made India more cautious this time about the Chandrayaan-3 mission. The last 20 or 15 minutes of the mission were the most critical which is also termed as "20 minutes of terror."

As in this phase, all the processes become autonomous, and this was the time when Vikram lander ignited its engine at the right time and right altitude.

What is Pragyan lander?

Pragyan is a Sanskrit term which means ‘wisdom.’ Pragyan is a rover with six wheels which is designed to perform experiments on the moon's surface. 

According to NASA, the rover has a rectangular chassis, which is 91.7 x 75.0 x 39.7 cm in size, and the rover is mounted on a rocker-bogie wheel drive assembly. 

The rover is installed with navigation cameras and a solar panel that can generate 50 W and communicate directly with the lander on the moon's surface. 

What's next after Pragyan's landing?

Chairman of ISRO, S Somnath, informed earlier that, "After powered descent (of lander) on to the landing site, there will be deployment of ramp and rover coming out. After this all the experiments will take place one after the other – all of which have to be completed in just one day on the moon, which is 14 days."

Vikram Lander sends an image of Pragyan

Vikram Lander sends the first image of the Pragyan rover. The chairman of Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre shared an image on X, where the Pragyan rover could be seen coming out of Vikram lander to the moon's surface.

Check the image here:

First photo of Rover coming out of the lander on the ramp. pic.twitter.com/0ouhMk8MbR

— Pawan K Goenka (@GoenkaPk) August 23, 2023