Previously unseen footage of Chandrayaan-3’s lander has been made public by India’s space agency.
The nation made history by being the first to arrive close to the South Pole, and the footage was shot just hours thereafter.
The image displays Pragyaan, which is Sanskrit for knowledge, stepping off of the lander by slamming down a ramp.
On Wednesday night, the Vikram lander, which contained the rover inside of it, had successfully touched down.
With this, India joins the US, the former Soviet Union, and China as the only other nations to successfully conduct a soft landing on the moon.
The 26kg rover “ramped down” from the lander on Thursday, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (Isro), and “India took a walk on the Moon!”
The video from Friday morning shows the rover stepping out into the sun and its shadow growing longer.
Pragyaan, which travels at a pace of 1 cm per second, is currently exploring the craters and rocks in search of vital information and photographs that will be transmitted back to Earth for processing. It also imprints the Isro badges and logo on the surface of the Moon with every stride it takes using its six wheels.
Two scientific tools that the rover is carrying will be used to investigate the chemical makeup of the soil and the minerals that are present on the lunar surface.
Pragyaan will only communicate with the lander, which will transmit the data to Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter, which is still rotating about the Moon, for analysis.
- India makes a historic landing close to the south pole of the moon. the race to decipher the mysteries of the south pole of the moon
The lander and rover will get 14 days of sunshine to charge their batteries because the landing on Wednesday occurred at the beginning of a lunar day. A lunar day is roughly the size of four weeks on Earth.
They will stop operating and discharge once darkness falls. It is not yet known if they will bring back when the following lunar day begins.
In addition, the lander is equipped with a number of scientific tools that will aid in understanding what occurs on the Moon’s surface as well as above and below it.
Although the moon is believed to contain significant amounts of minerals, Chandrayaan-3’s main objective is to search for water in the huge holes near the south pole, according to scientists.
Additionally, it might be used to refuel spacecraft traveling to Mars and other far-off planets.
The Luna-25 spacecraft from Russia crashed into the Moon after spinning out of control a few days prior to the landing.
