Chandrayaan-3: Rover Pragyan rolls out of Vikram lander, starts looking for moon's secrets

Shubhadeep Choudhury

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New Delhi, August 24

Adding yet another feather to the hat of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the rover Pragyan today crawled out of Vikram lander’s belly and started exploring the lunar landscape.

“Rover mobility operations have commenced,” ISRO announced in a post on X on Thursday evening. The state-run space agency also announced that ILSA, RAMBHA and ChaSTE—the payloads aboard Vikram—have been turned on.

Vikram lander

1. RAMBHA: Will measure near-surface plasma (ions and electrons) density and its changes with time
2. ILSA: Will look for seismicity around the landing site
3. ChaSTE: To study thermal properties of the surface near polar region

Pragyan rover

1. APXS: Will study chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition of the surface
2. LIBS: To determine elemental composition of lunar soil and rocks around the landing site

Five payloads

There are 3 payloads aboard Vikram lander and 2 aboard Pragyan rover

While RAMBHA (langmuir probe) will measure the near-surface plasma (ions and electrons) density and its changes with time, ILSA (instrument for lunar seismic activity) is meant to measure seismicity around the landing site. ChaSTE (Chandra’s surface thermo-physical experiment) will study thermal properties of lunar surface near polar region.

The rover has two payloads. APXS (alpha particle X-ray spectrometer) will study the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition of the lunar surface. Data generated by the APXS will throw light on whether water could be found in the area. The lunar south pole, where Vikram landed, has a number of craters and these might be having abundance of frozen water, scientists suspect. The second payload aboard the rover is LIBS (laser-induced breakdown spectroscope), which will determine the elemental composition (Mg, Al, Si, K,Ca,Ti, Fe) of lunar soil and rocks around the lunar landing site. In a spectacular feat yesterday, hailed by scientists across the globe, Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar probe, accomplished soft-landing on the south pole, making India the first country in the world to mark its physical presence in an area of moon that is suspected to have a reservoir of frozen water and, thus, useful for future exploration and possible colonisation of moon.

“All activities are on schedule. All systems are normal,” ISRO said in a post on X as it announced that the rover, weighing 27 kg and having six wheels for movement and 3-D camera for navigation, has commenced movement on the lunar surface. Pragyan can travel up to 500 metres in any direction. The lander and the rover, both powered by solar energy, have a mission life of one lunar day (equivalent to 14 earth days).

The propulsion module, which separated from Vikram earlier after reaching the lunar orbit, continues to orbit the moon in a circular path. The SHAPE payload aboard the propulsion module was switched on back on Sunday.