ISRO attempts to revive Pragyan Rover, Vikram Lander as dawn breaks on Moon

As dawn approaches Moon, ISRO is preparing to again re-establish communication with its Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission’s solar-powered lander Vikram and rover Pragyan in an effort to revive them so they may carry out scientific investigations.

Prior to the Moon falling upon Earth’s lone natural satellite on September 4 and 2, respectively, the lander and rover were both put into sleep mode.

If ISRO is able to revive them as the sun rises on the Moon, the information that is acquired from tests could once again be carried out by the Chandrayaan-3 payloads, which would be a “bonus”.

ISRO is now scheduled to make attempts to re-establish contact with them, check their health and ability to resume functioning, and attempt to revive them now that sunlight is returning to the south polar region of the Moon, where both the lander and rover are located, and their solar panels are anticipated to be fully charged soon.

As per ISRO’s Space Applications Centre Director Nilesh Desai, both the lander and rover are in sleep mode because the temperature would go as low as minus 120–200 degrees Celsius.

The lander, the rover, and payloads that were on board conducted tests one after the other after landing on the Moon in order to finish them within 14 Earth days (one lunar day) before total darkness and extremely cold weather descended upon the Moon.

With a combined mass of 1,752 kg, the lander and rover were intended to explore the area for one lunar day (about 14 days on Earth).

However, ISRO is expecting that they will reappear when the sun once more rises on the moon so that the tests and research may continue.

On August 23, the lander successfully did a soft landing on the lunar surface by making contact with the lunar surface close to the south pole.

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