On Wednesday, the Chandrayaan-3 lander made a successful descent to the lunar surface, marking India as the fourth nation to achieve a soft landing on the Moon. Notably, India also secured the distinction of being the first to land near the Moon’s South Pole.
Just two days following the Chandrayaan-3’s lunar landing, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released the inaugural video showcasing the rover’s movement on the lunar terrain. An ensuing update from the space agency confirmed the rover’s traversal of 8 meters on the lunar surface, along with the activation of its two onboard scientific experiments.
With a total potential distance of 500 meters, the rover employed a two-segment foldable ramp on the lander module, facilitated by an attached cord for controlled descent. Once the rover established contact with the Moon’s surface, the cord was retracted.
During its rollout, the rover’s solar panel unfurled, enabling the generation of 50W of power for its mission. ISRO verified the success of all planned rover movements and reported that the rover had effectively covered around eight meters. The LIBS (LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope) and APXS (Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer) payloads onboard the rover were activated as well.
ISRO concluded by affirming the nominal performance of all payloads on the propulsion, lander, and rover modules.
