ISRO’s Miraculous Achievement with Chandrayaan-3: Unplanned Hop of Vikram Lander
The successful landing of the Vikram lander on the Moon’s surface on August 23, 2023, during the Chandrayaan-3 mission garnered global attention and praise for ISRO’s efforts. Following the safe landing, the Pragyan rover was successfully deployed from the Vikram Lander and began exploring the Moon. However, the mission was temporarily halted for 14 days due to the impending lunar night in early September. Recently, Project Director P Veeramuthuvel provided insights into the objectives of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, including an intriguing experiment called the Vikram Lander hop test. Discover what the ISRO director had to say.
Chandrayaan-3 mission objectives
Project Director P Veeramuthuvel recently said in an interview with India Today that the Chandrayaan-3 mission has already achieved its goal of conducting research on the lunar surface for one lunar day (14 days on Earth). After that, the Vikram lander and the Pragyan cabin were put into hibernation due to the looming lunar night. Lacking the proper equipment to survive the harsh, freezing temperatures of a lunar night, both may have died sometime during that night. However, scientists still have hope. During the lunar night, the temperature of the Moon drops to -150 to -200 degrees, which makes it difficult for the devices to survive.
What was missing and what would have ensured that the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover survived the cold and darkness? The director said: “We have no nuclear power resources and were completely dependent on solar power generation.”
Veeramuthuvel also mentioned that ISRO carried out all the necessary planned activities, such as the use of all scientific instruments and all payloads for the necessary data collection.
The Vikram Lander Drunk Test
One of the most eye-catching experiments conducted by ISRO was the Vikram Lander hop experiment. It has now been revealed that this miracle was achieved even though the whole thing was quite unplanned. It was not planned by ISRO before the launch of Chandrayaan-3 mission. And therefore it can be rightly said that the task has already exceeded its highest expectations. The Vikram Lander hop experiment took 24 hours of planning and strategizing as scientists had to decide on a new landing site for the lunar lander.
Now that the sun is once again setting on the Moon’s south pole, the chances of recovery of the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover have diminished and ISRO may no longer be able to communicate with them. However, for ISRO, the Chandrayaan-3 mission was a historic success and contributed to several unexpected discoveries.
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