NEW DELHI (AP) – India’s lunar rover has completed a walk on the moon and entered sleep mode less than two weeks after its historic landing near the moon’s south pole, the Indian space mission says. announced.
“The spacecraft has completed its mission. It is now safely parked and in sleep mode,” the Indian Space Research Organization said in a statement late Saturday, as daylight on that part of the moon nears an end. said.
The spacecraft’s payload was turned off and the data it collected was transmitted to Earth via the lander, the statement said.
The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate for just one lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 Earth days.
“Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panels are oriented to receive light at the next sunrise, expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver remains on. We wish Awakening success in his new mission!” the statement said.
No word on the results of the probe’s search for traces of frozen water on the moon that could be useful for future astronaut missions as a potential source of drinking water or rocket fuel.
Earlier this week, the space agency announced that its lunar probe had confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements. The spacecraft’s laser-induced spectrometer also detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon on the surface, the statement said.
The Indian Express said the electronics onboard India’s lunar probe were not designed to withstand extremely low temperatures, below minus 120 degrees Celsius (minus 184 degrees Fahrenheit), during the lunar night. Moonlit nights last for 14 days on Earth.
Pallava Bagla, a science writer and co-author of a book on India’s space exploration, said the rover’s battery power is limited.
The data will be returned to Earth and analyzed first by Indian scientists and then by the international community, he said.
Bagra said the rover may or may not wake up by lunar sunrise because its electronics will no longer function at such low temperatures.
“The technology to make electronic circuits and components that can withstand the frigid temperatures of the moon does not exist in India,” he said.
Despite a failed moon landing in 2019, India last week became the fourth country to achieve this milestone after the United States, the Soviet Union and China.
The success of this mission signals India’s rising status as a technology and space power and is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s desire to project an image of a dominant country that asserts its place among the world’s elite. Match.
The mission began more than a month ago at an estimated cost of $75 million.
India’s success comes just days after Russia’s Luna 25, which was heading for the same lunar region, spun into an uncontrollable orbit and crashed. This was to be Russia’s first successful landing on the moon in 47 years.
The head of Russia’s state-run space company Roscosmos blamed the failure on a lack of expertise due to a long hiatus in lunar research since the Soviet Union’s last lunar mission in 1976.
India has been actively launching satellites since the 1960s, launching satellites for itself and other countries, and in 2014 it succeeded in placing them in orbit around Mars. India is planning its first mission to the International Space Station next year in cooperation with the United States.