India’s Moon robot pragyan captures remote images of Vikram landing station after both vehicles spent half their time on Chandrayaan-3 mission.
Vikram Station in Photo Captured by Robot Pragyan. Photo: ISRO.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has shared two black and white images captured by the Chandrayaan-3 mission, showing the Vikram landing station resting on the moon’s dusty surface. These images were taken by the positioning camera on the autonomous robot, Pragyan, at 9:30 AM on August 30th. One of the two images has annotations highlighting the two scientific sensors deployed by Vikram, namely the Chandra Surface Thermo-physical Experiment (ChaSTE) and the Lunar Seismic Activity Instrument (ILSA).
The Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully landed on the Moon on August 23rd. A day later, the autonomous robot Pragyan separated from the landing station, and both vehicles commenced their scientific exploration. In the week since landing, the mission has transmitted a series of images and videos capturing Pragyan’s travels across the lunar surface, leaving tire tracks on the terrain. The images shared by ISRO on August 30th mark the first images of the landing station taken from the perspective of the autonomous robot.
The ChaSTE instrument of the mission garnered significant attention earlier this week when it conducted thermal measurements of the lunar surface. This marked the first-ever direct surface measurements conducted at the lunar south pole, as opposed to measurements taken from orbit. The instrument features a probe that drills 10 cm into the lunar soil to study how soil temperature varies with depth.
The results revealed sudden temperature variations in the lunar soil. At 8 cm below the surface, the soil was frozen at -10 degrees Celsius, while the surface heated up to 60 degrees Celsius. Unlike Earth, the lunar surface can become extremely hot during the day because the Moon lacks a thick atmosphere to absorb solar heat, leading to a significant temperature difference between sunlight and shadow.
The temperature measured by the Vikram station remained relatively moderate. Previous measurements by lunar orbiters suggested that temperatures on the Moon’s surface can rise to 127 degrees Celsius during the day and drop to -173 degrees Celsius at night, especially near the equator, according to NASA. Consequently, human lunar missions are planned to land at dawn, when the lunar surface is warm enough for human activity but not excessively hot.
In a separate announcement, ISRO shared that Chandrayaan-3 has discovered traces of sulfur in the lunar soil. Sulfur was previously found in small quantities in lunar samples brought back to Earth during the Apollo missions in the 1970s. However, scientists were uncertain about the prevalence of this mineral on the Moon. They believe that sulfur comes from past geological activities, so understanding its abundance can provide insights into the Moon’s history.
Chandrayaan-3 has now completed half of its planned mission duration. Both the landing station and the autonomous robot are not expected to survive the extended two-week-long lunar night. Their solar-powered systems cannot sustain operation in the harsh cold and darkness that envelops the lunar surface.
This marks India’s first successful Moon landing effort and the first mission to land on the lunar south pole. Previously, only the United States, the Soviet Union, and China had successfully placed spacecraft on the lunar surface. India had faced a setback with the Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019, when the landing station crashed due to a software glitch, although the orbiter continued its lunar research efforts.