'Hoping for a successful awakening after 14 days': ISRO as Pragyan Rover goes to sleep mode

In a late-night post on Saturday, the space organization said that the Rover deployed by lander Vikram onboard for the Chandrayaan-3 mission is currently in sleep mode and will need sunlight to reactivate it on Sept 22.

In an update, the ISRO said: "Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The Rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander."

"Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is kept on. Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments! Else, it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador," ISRO said.

Earlier, ISRO Chairman S. Somanath after the successful launch of the Aditya-L1, said, “The lander and rover are functioning. Our team, using the scientific instruments, are doing a lot of work. The good news is that the rover has moved 100 metres from the lander.”

Somnath had said that ISRO is likely to start the process of putting the rover to sleep in the coming days.

“We are going to start the process of making the rover sleep in the coming days because it has to withstand the night,” he said.

A couple of hours after the announcement, the rover went to sleep to overcome the minus climate.

The lander and the rover, with a mission life of one Lunar day (14 Earth days), had scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface. Since its landing on the Moon on August 23, they have carried out many in-site measurements and taken pictures.

“The lander and the rover will stay on the Moon for 14 days until they get sunlight. When there is no sunlight, a small solar panel, which is on the rover, will generate power to charge the battery for the next 14 days until they get sunlight,” Somanath said earlier.

Once the Sun sets on the Moon, the temperature can plunge below minus 200 degrees Celsius.

“The temperature there goes down to -200 minus degrees. In such an environment, there is no guarantee that the battery and electronics will survive, but we did some tests and we get the feeling that they will survive even in such harsh conditions,” Somnath had said.

(With UNI inputs)