ISRO releases first images of Pragyan rover rolling out
Officials confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet ISRO chief S Somanath and the team of Chandrayaan-3 scientists on Saturday, soon after returning from Athens in Greece.
Two days after the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) successfully landed lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 near the moon’s south pole, making India the first country in the world to achieve this feat, the space agency released the first images of the rover (Pragyan).
The space agency released a video, which shows the rover rolling out of the Vikram lander in the early hours of Thursday.
“...and here is how the Chandrayaan-3 rover ramped down from the lander to the lunar surface,” the Isro tweeted while releasing the video.
In another tweet, the space agency said, “A two-segment ramp facilitated the roll-down of the rover. A solar panel enabled the rover to generate power...”
Officials from the department of space confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet ISRO chief S Somanath and the team of Chandrayaan-3 scientists on Saturday, soon after returning from Athens in Greece.
After the meeting, the Pragyan rover is also expected to hoist the Indian tricolour on the lunar surface in the presence of the PM on Saturday.
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Senior officials of the space agency said that the Pragyan rover was released from the belly of Vikram lander around 10.30 pm on Wednesday, around four hours after the lander successfully landed on the lunar surface. After testing the inclination, temperature, terrain and ensuring that the dust kicked off by the landing of the Indian spacecraft settled, the rover was finally rolled out early Thursday morning, around 1.30 am.
“On Thursday, the rover moved within the observational area. We have not received the first set of data yet. Once all payloads are turned on, which should happen by Saturday, we will start getting initial data,” a senior official said.
Isro confirmed that after being charged till Thursday afternoon, the rover was finally moved on the lunar surface later in the day and between late Thursday and early Friday three payloads were turned on.
The three payloads are the Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) to measure seismicity around the landing site; Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) to study the ionosphere and atmosphere; and Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE), to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature.
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