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New images show India’s lunar rover beginning to explore the lunar surface, just one day after its arrival at the moon’s southern mole.
Chandrayaan-3, which touched down at the moon’s south pole on Wednesday, consists of a four-legged stationary lander and a smaller rover inside.
The new clip shows the plucky four-wheeled rover rolling down the lander’s ramp and beginning to wander across the dusty ground, leaving footprints in its wake.
Chandrayaan-3 already transmitted its first photograph of the moon’s surface yesterday, as well as four incredible snapshots of the moon from above during descent.
Although India’s space agency has yet to confirm the exact spot where Chandrayaan-3 landed, it is believed to be the same landing site planned for the failed Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft of 2019, among the southern craters of Manzinus C and SimpeliusN.
The cute little Chandrayaan-3 lander bravely steps out of its main ship and begins exploring the south pole of the moon.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has confirmed that its historic mission is going as planned and the systems are working as they should.
‘All activities are as planned. All systems are normal’, ISRO posted in Xformerly Twitter.
“Rover mobility operations have begun.”
There are two science instruments on the rover (nicknamed ‘Pragyan’) and three instruments on board the lander (‘Vikram’) and all of them have been turned on sequentially.
They will study the moon’s atmospheric and mineral composition, including patches of water ice that are common in the southern lunar region.
The science instruments will be active for about one lunar day, or 14 Earth days, before losing power, a relatively short mission.
ISRO President Sreedhara Somanath admitted that there are “many problems” on the moon’s surface, such as lunar dust and frigid temperatures, which could affect the rover’s moving parts during the 14-day period.
“The mechanisms, the moving parts… can get caught in the dust there,” he told India’s CNN News 18 television channel.
The Chandrayaan-3 rover weighing just 26 kg (57 lb), about the same as three full-size watermelons
“It can get into moving parts and jam them, bearings in the system may not work, motors may not work.”
‘All this creates problems in those mechanisms… so let’s see how it goes.
‘We’ll face it… that’s why we’re exploring. If you know everything, what’s the fun in doing it?
The South Pole is still uncharted territory for humanity, and is far from the equatorial region targeted by previous lunar missions, such as the Apollo manned moon landings of the 1960s and 1970s.
Not only is it filled with spectacular craters and deep trenches, but also extremely cold temperatures (as low as -410°F/-246°C according to NASA), which can put a strain on any spacecraft’s power systems.
But these temperatures also mean that the South Pole has a large amount of frozen water reserves, which is of great interest to scientists.
These pockets of water ice, known as “cold traps,” have the potential to exist for thousands of years in “airless bodies” that have no atmosphere, such as the moon.
Thus, they could provide a record of microbial life, lunar volcanoes, material brought to Earth by comets and asteroids, or the origin of ancient oceans.
They could even provide a source of water for any future human settlement on the Moon, whether for drinking or irrigating crops.
Chandrayaan-3 already transmitted its first photograph of the moon’s surface yesterday, as well as four incredible snapshots of the moon from above during descent. This is one of them
The Chandrayaan-3 lander, with its rover inside, sits atop the propulsion module that carried it into lunar orbit. The lander successfully descended to the lunar surface on Wednesday
The unforgiving southern region of the Moon is also generating great interest among the space agencies of Russia, China and the United States.
Russia attempted to land a spacecraft in the lunar south last weekend, but failed spectacularly when it went out of control and crashed, leaving the way clear for India to seal the achievement.
Although India is the fourth country after the United States, Russia and China to safely land a spacecraft on the Moon, it made history by being the first to do so on the south pole of the Moon.
Chandrayaan-3 actually left Earth more than a month ago, aboard a rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Center north of Chennai on July 14.
India’s spacecraft have taken much longer to reach the moon than the Apollo missions, which arrived in a matter of days, because the Asian nation is using much less powerful rockets.
This meant that Chandrayaan-3 had to orbit the Earth several times after liftoff to gain speed before embarking on its month-long lunar trajectory.
Chandrayaan-3 then orbited the moon for more than two weeks before its successful landing on Wednesday, prompting jubilation in India.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also hailed a “historic day” for his country’s space sector, adding that “India is now on the moon.”
Indians wave national flags as they celebrate the successful lunar landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the south pole of the Moon, on the streets of Mumbai on August 24, 2023.
Locals wave the Indian flag as an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh , on July 14, 2023.
This image from video provided by the Indian Space Research Organization shows the surface of the moon as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft prepares to land on Wednesday. Its golden insulating material and its solar panels are visible.
India has a comparatively low-budget aerospace program, but it has grown considerably in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the Moon in 2008 (Chandrayaan-1).
The latest mission is priced at $74.6 million, much lower than other countries and a testament to India’s frugal space engineering.
Experts say India can keep costs down by copying and adapting existing space technology and thanks to an abundance of highly-skilled engineers who earn a fraction of the salaries of their foreign counterparts.
In 2014, India became the first Asian nation to put a satellite into orbit around Mars and is scheduled to launch a three-day manned mission to Earth orbit next year.
India is also working with the Japan Space Agency (JAXA) on Chandrayaan-4, which would also land on the moon’s south but would have a much longer lifetime.
The launch of Chandrayaan-4 is tentatively scheduled for 2025 or 2026.