Chandrayaan-3: As Pragyan Rover Completes Its Assignments, It Is Set Into ‘Sleep Mode’, Payloads Are Turned Off

Chandrayaan-3: The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) payloads onboard Pragyan have been turned off.

Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan rover has completed its assignments and has been parked safely and put into “sleep mode”. ( Image Source :ISRO )

Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan rover has completed its assignments and has been parked safely and put into “sleep mode”. The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) payloads onboard Pragyan have been turned off, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a mission update on September 2, 2023. The Vikram lander is transmitting data from the payloads to the Earth. However, the battery of the Pragyan rover is fully charged, and the solar panel has been oriented so that it can receive sunlight when the next lunar sunrise occurs on September 22, 2023. Since the Moon takes about 27 days to complete one rotation on its axis, a lunar day is equal to 14 Earth days. When Chandrayaan-3 landed on the Moon on August 23, lunar sunrise had occurred. Therefore, the next lunar sunrise on the Moon will occur on September 22.

The receiver of the rover has been kept on. ISRO said that it is hoping for a successful awakening of Pragyan so that it can conduct another set of experiments. “Else, it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador,” ISRO wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
The Rover completed its assignments.

It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode.
APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off.
Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander.

Currently, the battery is fully charged.
The solar panel is…

— ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023

By September 2, Pragyan had traversed over 100 metres on the lunar south pole region. After Vikram successfully soft landed on the Moon, Pragyan moved southwards. Then, the rover moved southeast, and came across a large crater of size four metres. After a series of commands, Pragyan redirected itself northwest to move to a safe path. Next, it moved eastwards, and then westwards. After travelling a long distance towards the west, Pragyan turned northwards, and then southwards. Next, Pragyan moved northeast, and then towards the north. 

Both the payloads onboard Pragyan have confirmed the presence of sulphur on the Moon's south pole. They have also detected other elements such as aluminium, silicon, oxygen, and manganese.