Chandrayaan-3: Pragyan Rover Traverses Over 100 Metres On Lunar South Pole Region

Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover is still continuing its journey on the lunar south pole region after traversing over 100 metres.

After rolling out of the Vikram lander, Pragyan moved southwards. Then, the rover moved southeast, as a result of which it came across a huge lunar crater with a diameter of four metres. Fortunately, after a series of commands, Pragyan retraced its path to reach a safe area. ( Image Source :X/@ISRO )

Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover has traversed more than 100 metres on the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a mission update on September 2, 2023. The rover is still continuing its journey on the lunar south pole region. After rolling out of the Vikram lander, Pragyan moved southwards. Then, the rover moved southeast, as a result of which it came across a huge lunar crater with a diameter of four metres. Fortunately, after a series of commands, Pragyan retraced its path to reach a safe area. After retracing its path, Pragyan started moving west. Then, it started moving northwards.

Chandrayaan-3 softly touched down on the Moon's south pole on August 23, making India the first country to softly land a spacecraft on the lunar south pole. About four hours after the historic touchdown, Pragyan rolled out of Vikram. The next day, the lander and rover payloads were turned on. In just a week of starting operations on the Moon, Chandrayaan-3's payloads have made groundbreaking discoveries.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

🏏Pragyan 100*

Meanwhile, over the Moon, Pragan Rover has traversed over 100 meters and continuing. pic.twitter.com/J1jR3rP6CZ

— ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 has been operating on the Moon about nine days. The mission duration of both Vikram and Pragyan is 14 days, which means that about five days remain in their mission life. The payloads have achieved milestones such as confirming the presence of sulphur on the Moon, creating the first temperature-depth profile of the Moon's south pole, discovering that the plasma environment above the lunar south pole region is sparse, and detecting a potential lunar quake, among other feats.

After Chandrayaan-3's mission life is over, Vikram and Pragyan will be decommissioned, and will remain on the Moon. However, there is a possibility of them working beyond their mission duration.

On September 2, ISRO launched Aditya-L1, India's first space-based observatory to study the Sun. Over an hour after launch, PSLV-C57 successfully placed Aditya-L1 into low-Earth orbit. 

Aditya-L1 will reach its final destination, which is a halo orbit around Lagrange point 1 (L1), about four months later, in January 2024.