The Chandrayaan-3 Pragyan spacecraft has completed its mission, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced today. The rover has been safely parked and put into sleep mode, ISRO said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is oriented to receive light at the next sunrise, which is expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is on,” ISRO said.
“We hope for a successful relaunch of the second mission group. Otherwise, it will remain there forever as India’s lunar ambassador,” the space agency said. Pragyan, a 26-kg six-wheeled solar-powered rover, is equipped with scientific instruments to record what the lunar soil and rocks are made of in the south polar region, where the Chandrayaan-3 lander Vikram touched down.
ISRO said that the APXS and LIBS payloads have been powered down and the data from these payloads will be transmitted to Earth via Vikram. The APXS instrument is best suited for in situ analysis of the elemental composition of soils and rocks on the surface of low-atmosphere planets such as the Moon. APXS observations identified the presence of interesting minor elements such as sulfur in addition to expected major elements such as aluminium, silicon, calcium and iron.
The Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) instrument on the rover has already confirmed the presence of sulfur.
