Pragyan, the Indian space mission’s robotic vehicle, has already made its maiden flight. The Chandrayaan 3 rover disembarked from the spacecraft on Thursday to begin exploration of the moon’s south pole. The device is working as planned, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said on Friday.
The agency released a video of Pragyan (which means wisdom in Sanskrit) descending from the lander. The spacecraft successfully landed on the moon on Wednesday, making India the fourth country to land on the moon and the first to fly a mission to the moon’s south pole.
Pragyan is a small machine with six wheels, one meter long and weighing about 26 kilograms. “He all-terrain vehicle successfully covered a distance of about 8 meters. ISRO reported on X, previously Twitter. The agency clarified that the entire payload of the propulsion module, lander and rover is working correctly.
The little robot is making history: no one has ever been to this part of the moon before. Pragyan has two instruments for conducting surface chemistry and elemental composition experiments. An all-terrain vehicle is expected work for two Earth weeks. After this time, as planned, your solar-powered equipment will stop working.
Pragyan’s problem at the south pole of the moon
Pragyan will use its navigation cameras to survey the area and transmit images back to Earth. ISRO sends instructions from Earth to move the craft, which can travel up to 500 meters from where the lander is located.
All data and experiments of the rover They will be used to better understand the presence of water in this region of the Moon. Scientists at the Chinese National Academy of Sciences have calculated that the entire moon could have about 270,000 million tons of water in the form of ice
However, the Indian mission he does not have instruments designed to directly confirm the presence of water. No deposits are expected near the landing zone either, explained Santosh Vadavale, head of one of the Chandrayaan-3 experiments. A country.
Lunar water can be a source of hydrogen and oxygen, which could be used, for example, to make rocket fuel. For this reason, the US and Chinese space agencies are already planning manned flights to the Moon’s South Pole.
The Americans hope to achieve this in 2025, while the Chinese expect it to happen in 2030. They are also interested in other minerals such as iron, silicon and magnesium. This is the beginning of an entirely new industry based on mining on the moon.
India as a new key player
“These experiments will pave the way for further scientific studies of the presence of oxygen and hydrogen on the lunar surface,” he published. Press Trust of India, the largest news agency in this country. Also “They can give us a direct or indirect answer about whether there was life on the moon”the publication added, citing Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh.
India was congratulated by the European and US space agencies, NASA director Bill Nelson said they are looking forward to the first results. With this mission, the Asian country confirms its space potential, depriving Russia of the feat of being the first to reach the south pole of the moon. The Russians tried to do this last weekend, but the ship crashed during one of the last maneuvers.
Source: Hiper Textual
