Chandrayaan 3: ISRO Tries to Wake Up Lander and Rover
Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover yet to re-establish communication after lunar night; ISRO remains hopeful.
Chandrayaan-3 lander Vikram successfully landed on the moon on 23rd August 2023 and conducted experiments. You all know, 1 lunar day is equal to about 14 earth days. Hence when the lunar day ended, on 2nd September 2023, the rover went into sleep mode, and on 4th September 2023, the lander also entered sleep mode. On the moon, temperatures can drop to below -200°C during the lunar night, which could be tough for the lander and rover's survival. ISRO hoped the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover would wake up around 22nd September 2023 when the lunar night ended. ISRO has been trying to wake up the Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover. However, so far, ISRO has not received any signals from them, despite their continued efforts to establish communication. ISRO is still trying to contact the lander and rover and remains hopeful. ISRO Chairman S Somanath said, “Till now there has been no signal, but I cannot say it will not come up. We can wait the entire lunar day (14 Earth days) as there will be continuous sunlight throughout that period, which means the temperature will only go up. As long as the temperature is increasing there are chances of systems inside getting warmed up. So the systems could even wake up on the 14th day, there is no way to predict when it could happen.” If ISRO can wake up Vikram and Pragyan, it will allow them to perform more experiments on the moon. Meanwhile the rover Pragyan's wheels, imprinted with the Indian national emblem and the ISRO logo, aren't leaving clear marks on the Moon's surface. Before the mission, when ISRO tested the rover's wheels on Moon-like soil created by ISRO in a lab, the marks it made were very clear. But when the rover tried to make marks on the real Moon's surface, it didn't work the same way. The marks it left were not clear. This means that the Moon's soil is different from what ISRO and a previous US mission thought. It has some unique things in it that ISRO will need to study more.
