The Indian Space Research Agency (ISRO) has said that the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s lander Vikram will be falling asleep next to the Pragyan Rover.
In a tweet on September 4, the space agency said that Vikram was set into sleep mode today around 08:00 hours (IST) today. Before Vikram entered sleep mode, in-situ experiments by ChaSTE, RAMBHA-LP and ILSA payloads were performed at the lander’s new location.
“The data collected is received at the Earth. Payloads are now switched off,” ISRO said in the tweet.
However, the lander’s receivers have been kept on. Once its solar power is exhausted and its battery is drained, Vikram will fall asleep next to Pragyan.
“Hoping for their awakening, around September 22, 2023,” ISRO added.
Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram Lander soft-lands on Moon again
Earlier today, ISRO announced that the lander had soft-landed on the lunar surface again after it underwent a successful hop. It also shared a video of the event. Discussing the importance of the hop, ISRO wrote, “Importance?: This ‘kick-start’ enthuses future sample return and human missions! All systems performed nominally and are healthy. Deployed Ramp, ChaSTE and ILSA were folded back and redeployed successfully after the experiment.”
In its latest tweet, ISRO shared the images from before and after the hop.
Pragyan Rover goes to sleep
On September 2, ISRO said that the mission’s Pragyan Rover had safely been parked and set into Sleep mode. The rover conducted several experiments on the Moon. Its solar panel is oriented in a way to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22. The receiver has been kept on. “Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments! Else, it will forever stay there as India’s lunar ambassador,” ISRO added.
