On August 23, 2023, India successfully landed a lunar spacecraft on the Moon’s South Pole. The rover spent two weeks collecting data and images of the Moon. It landed at the South Pole of the Moon, which was the first human exploration of that portion of the moon.
The mission Chandrayaan-3 sent the rover Pragyaan (the Sanskrit word for wisdom) on the lander Vikram by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The rover found aluminum, sulfur, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen on the Moon. These are the first samples of the composition of the lunar surface’s south pole.
Chandrayaan-3’s primary mission was to discover water-based ice on the south pole of the moon. Overall the mission had several goals but ISRO mainly wanted to learn more about the characteristics of the moon and whether it previously had water.
This is not ISRO’s first mission to the moon. Chandrayaan-1 landed on the moon in 2008 and India learned many things about the moon including the discovery of water molecules on the dry surface. Unfortunately, in India’s next attempt in 2019, Chandrayaan-2 was unsuccessful and was destroyed on landing.
ISRO and India rejoiced at the success of the landing more than 15 years after its first exploration with Chandrayaan. ISRO was likely very relieved that the rover landed successfully especially given Russia’s Luna-25 was destroyed upon its attempted landing just days before.
India’s rover was only meant to explore for two weeks due to its limited battery capacity. ISRO was hoping that the rover would recharge during the moon’s next lunar cycle. Unfortunately, the Pragyaan has not since reawakened and all of India is losing hope that it will recharge its batteries and continue to explore.
Sources:
Sharma, Ashok. “India’s lunar rover keeps walking on the moon, days after spacecraft’s historic touchdown.” Associated Press. Associated Press, August 25, 2023. Apnews.com October 9, 2023.
Pandey, Geeta. “Chandrayaan-3: India makes historic landing near Moon’s south pole.” BBC news. BBC, August 23, 2023. Bbc.com. October 9, 2023
Pandey, Geeta. “Chandrayaan-3: What has India’s Moon rover Pragyaan been up to since landing?” BBC news. BBC, August 30, 2023. Bbc.com. October 9, 2023