India takes a moonwalk: Pragyan rover touches down on lunar surface

The Pragyan rover will carry out two important experiments on the surface of the Moon

After the historic landing of Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander on the Moon, Pragyan, the rover, has rolled down on the lunar surface. Both the lander and the rover are healthy.

The Indian Space Research Organisation confirmed the development on August 24 morning and said, "The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander and India took a walk on the moon !

Sources indicated that Pragyan may have touched the surface in the intervening night of August 23 and August 24. But it was only on August 24 morning that President Droupadi Murmu took to X (formerly Twitter) to congratulate ISRO for Pragyan's successful deployment.

"I once again congratulate the ISRO team and all fellow citizens for successful deployment of Pragyan-rover from inside Vikram-lander. Its rolling out a few hours after the landing of Vikram marked the success of yet another stage of Chandrayan 3," the President said.

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"I look forward with excitement, alongside my fellow citizens and scientists to the information and analyses that Pragyan will acquire and enrich our understanding of the moon," she added.

Timeline

Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander touched the surface of the Moon at 6.03 pm on August 23. Post that, according to sources, ISRO had to wait for the dust to finally settle around the landing area to proceed onto the next stages of the mission.

After that, on late August 23 evening, the ramp, on which the rover rolled down to the lunar surface, was deployed. At around 9.30 pm, Nilesh Desai, Director of Space Applications Centre, said the Pragyan rover was in the process of rolling down, according to reports. 

What Pragyan will do

While addressing the press on August 23 post Chandrayaan-3's landing, ISRO chairman S Somanath had said, "Once the Pragyan rover comes out there will be two important experiments. And both of them are linked with the elemental composition of the surface of  the moon.

"First experiment will be using a laser beam. We will send a laser beam from the rover on the material, which will generate spectroscopic information which will identify elements there," Somanath said.

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"Another experiment is related to an alpha particle, which will be emitted by radioactive materials there, and that will generate certain X-RAY fluoroscence on the surface, and that will be measured to find out chemical composition," he added.

What Vikram will do

"There is a instrument called RAMBHA which will study the charged atmosphere on Moon, ILSA which will study seismic activity, ChaSTE which will study thermophyiscal properties," Somanath said.

Experts said that after landing, Vikram and Pragyan can look for minerals of great importance that can give insights into the evolution of the Moon. It can also help in identifying minerals that India may like to extract in the future.

Another area of importance will be expanding on the discoveries of Chandrayaan-1, specifically with regards to water molecules on the South Pole, and seeing if water molecules can be split into hydrogen and oxygen. This would have immense ramification in future human habitation or fuel programmes.