Chandrayaan 3: Rover has moved 100 m from lander, both to be put to ‘sleep’ to withstand night, says ISRO chief

Sriharikota (AP), September 2

Lunar mission Chandrayaan 3’s rover and lander are functioning well and they would be put to “sleep” soon to withstand the night on the Moon, ISRO Chairman S Somanath said on Saturday.

The lander and rover, ‘Vikram’ and ‘Pragyaan’, respectively, were still functioning and “our team with scientific instruments are doing a lot of work now,” he said.

“The good news is that the rover has moved almost 100 metres from the lander and we are going to start the process of making both of them sleep in the coming one or two days because they have to withstand the night,” he said.

The ISRO chief was addressing from the Mission Control Center here after the launch of India’s maiden solar mission, Aditya L1.