The Pragyan rover from Chandrayaan-3 is shown moving around the surface of the moon in a video provided by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
The space agency said that the Pragyan rover successfully traveled roughly eight meters over the lunar surface.
Two days after Chandrayaan-3’s lander Vikram made a historic soft landing on the Moon’s south pole, the space agency released two footage of Pragyan.
The first video, which lasts 30 seconds, shows the Pragyan rover disengaging from the lander and dismounting on the moon.
The lander imager camera took a picture of the movie on Wednesday.
The second video shows the lander module’s ramp being deployed before the rover is rolled out and its solar panel is deployed.
“A two-segment ramp made it easier to roll the rover down. The rover was able to produce electricity thanks to a solar panel. Here is how the solar panel and ramp were quickly deployed before the rover rolled down. The U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC)/ISRO in Bengaluru devised the 26 deployment mechanisms for the Ch-3 mission, according to ISRO, which released the second video on X.
The payloads have “turned on,” according to ISRO, and Pragyan has successfully traveled a distance of around 8 meters. “We have confirmed every Rover movement that was scheduled. Eight meters have been successfully covered by the Rover. The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) aboard the Rover are operational, according to ISRO.
The two payloads’ aim is to determine the local area’s elemental makeup close to the landing point.
With a mission length of one lunar day (14 days on Earth), the lander and the rover include scientific payloads to conduct lunar surface research.
The lander includes four payloads to investigate the lunar surface’s seismicity, thermal conductivity, and other features. Three of their payloads—ILSA, RAMBHA, and ChaSTE—have been activated.
“All payloads on the propulsion module, lander module, and rover are performing nominally,” noted ISRO.
