NEW DELHI – India’s lunar rover has completed its trek on the lunar surface and has been put into standby mode less than two weeks after its historic landing near the moon’s south pole, the Indian Space Mission announced.
“The rover is accomplishing its missions. It has now been safely parked and put into sleep mode as daylight has ended in this part of the moon, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said in a statement on Saturday evening.
The rover’s payloads were turned off and the collected data was transmitted to Earth via the lander, the same document said.
The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate for just a single lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 Earth days.
“The battery is currently fully charged. The solar panel is oriented to receive light at the next sunrise, scheduled for September 22, 2023. The receiver remains switched on. We hope for a successful start to another series of missions,” the press release also states.
However, no details are given about the results of the rover’s research into signs of frozen water on the lunar surface, which could serve as a potential source of drinking water for future astronaut missions or to make fuel for rockets.
Last week, the space agency said the lunar rover had confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements. The vehicle’s laser-induced spectroscopy instrument also detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon on the surface, it said.
The Indian Express newspaper revealed that the electronic equipment on board India’s lunar mission was not designed to withstand very low temperatures of below -120 degrees Celsius during the lunar night. On Earth, the lunar night also lasts 14 days.
Pallava Bagla, a science journalist and co-author of books on Indian space exploration, said the rover’s battery was limited.
The data is back on Earth and will be analyzed first by Indian scientists and then by the international community, he explained.
When the sun rises on the moon, the rover may or may not wake up because the electronic equipment dies in such cold temperatures, Bagla said.
“This technology to produce circuits and electronic components that can withstand the extremely cold temperatures of the moon does not exist in India,” he said.
After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India last week became the fourth country to reach the milestone, joining the US, Russia and China.
The successful mission demonstrates India’s growing position as a technology and space power. It also fits with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s desire to project an image of an emerging country asserting its place among the global elite.
The mission began more than a month ago and cost an estimated $75 million.
India’s success came just days after Russia’s Luna-25, targeting the same lunar region, entered an uncontrolled orbit and crashed. It was the first successful Russian moon landing in 47 years.
The head of the Russian space company Roskosmos attributed the failure to a lack of expertise due to the long pause in lunar research after the last Soviet lunar mission in 1976.
India has been active since the 1960s, launching satellites for itself and other countries, putting one into orbit around Mars in 2014. India is planning its first mission to the International Space Station next year in collaboration with the United States.