Pragyan Rover faces across 4-meter diameter crater on lunar surface, sent on 'new path'
Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced on Monday that the Pragyan Rover discovered a 4-meter-diameter crater on the lunar surface yesterday.
"Chandrayaan-3 Mission: On August 27, 2023, the Rover came across a 4-meter diameter crater positioned 3 meters ahead of its location. The Rover was commanded to retrace the path," ISRO said.
According to ISRO, the rover is now safely on a new path.
Earlier, Nilesh M Desai, Director, Space Applications Centre (SAC), stated on Sunday that the Chandrayaan-3's rover module Pragyan is in a "race against time" on the moon's surface and that ISRO scientists are working to cover the maximum distance of the uncharted South pole through the six-wheeled rover.
He stated that the three main goals of the moon mission were to carefully land on the lunar surface, move the Pragyan rover, and collect science data via payloads connected to the six-wheeled rover and lander Vikram.
"Our two main objectives have been accomplished successfully, but our third objective is underway," the scientist added.
"Our focus is to make the rover cover as much distance of the moon's South pole as possible so that it conducts more experiments and we obtain data here on earth."
"We have only 14 days in total for this mission, which is equal to one day on the moon, so four days have been completed. The more experiments and research we can do in the remaining ten days will be important. We are in a race against time because in these 10 days, we have to do maximum work and all the ISRO scientists are working on it," Desai further said.
On August 23, India made history when the Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully landed on the moon's South Pole, making it the first country to do so.
After the United States, China, and Russia, India became the fourth country to successfully land on the moon's surface.
Also Read: ISRO scientists race against time with 10 days left to complete one lunar day
- With inputs from agencies
