Spacecraft scheduled to snooze until September 22 when it's hoped machines return to duty
India's Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission has ended its first phase of operations, with the Pragyan rover and Vikram lander entering sleep mode to see out a long, long lunar night.
Launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 released its Vikram lander on August 17. The probe spent over a week slowly descending to touchdown on the Moon's southernmost tip, marking India as the first country ever to land near the Moon's south pole, and the fourth country to successfully land on the satellite at all after the US, Russia, and China.
Pragyan's instruments have been turned off, but its receivers will stay on to transmit data to Vikram. The lander has also paused data collection duties, but will keep its receivers on to send data back to Earth. "Vikram will fall asleep next to Pragyan once the solar power is depleted and the battery is drained. Hoping for their awakening, around September 22, 2023," the ISROBoth spacecraft are expected to continue studying the lunar south pole once they collect sufficient energy."Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments! Else, it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador," the ISRO added.
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