Chandrayaan-3: India’s Lunar Rover Pragyaan Takes a Walk on the Moon

Chandrayaan-3 Updates: India’s moon rover Pragyaan has taken its first steps on the surface of the moon after Vikram landed yesterday evening on India’s third moon mission Chandrayaan-3. With this, the country has made remarkable history by becoming the first to land near the South Pole.

The Indian Space Research Organization’s Pragyaan rover was successfully deployed on the Moon on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, after a soft successful landing of the Chandrayaan 3 Mission.

With this remarkable achievement, India not only made history but also joined an elite club of some selected countries to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the United States, China, and the former Soviet Union.

The Chandrayaan mission was the third lunar mission for India. The first Chandrayaan 1 mission took place in 2008 and operated for two years, and the second Chandrayaan 2 mission was launched in 2019, but it failed to land on the moon.

The story just doesn’t finish here, as celebrations have broken out across the country, with

Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying India is now on the Moon. “We have reached where no other country could. It’s a joyful occasion,” he added. Mr. Modi was watching the event live from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS summit.

The landing happens at the start of Lunar Day– which brings us to a day on the moon that equals 28 days on Earth, and this will mean the lander and the rover will have 14 days of sunlight to charge their batteries. To dive into more detail, The journey of Chandrayaan 3 started on July 14, 2023.

It was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Shriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The spacecraft was launched by GSLV Mark 3 (LVM3), a heavy-lift launch vehicle, into lunar orbit on August 5,2023.

What’s next for the rover?

According to the ISRO, the rover will move at a speed of 1cm per second, – with each step, it will also leave on the Moon’s surface the imprint of the ISRO logo and emblem embossed on its six wheels.

According to the reports of ISRO, for the next 13 days, Our spacecraft Pragyan will conduct all the tests while walking on the surface of the moon, 500 meters away from the lander, and all the updates will be received with the help of the lander.

All the information will be recorded and updated at the ISRO Command Center in Bengaluru. Also, an important update is that the scientists have already started getting information from the Pragyan rover, and the team has started decoding the information.

People across the country are filled with extreme joy as this turns out to be a historic day for India. From the first person, Droupadi Murmu, to the prime minister and other important faces of the country, everyone has expressed their happiness and acknowledged this historic moment.

It is also said that the rover’s wheels have the imprints of the national emblem of India, which is also known as the Wheel of Law, which is an adaptation from the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashok, and also the logo of ISRO, which is also included on the wheels of the rover.

This historic day will be marked as the golden day of India as India becomes the first country to land on the south pole of the moon, as no other country has ever got up to this achievement.