The Indian space agency has unveiled the first images of its Pragyan rover deployed on the Moon. The small rolling robot of the Chandrayaan-3 mission descends from the lander before rolling on the lunar surface.
No time to lose for Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon. The Indian probe, the first to land at the south pole of the Moon, quickly deployed the rover contained by the lander. The rover, christened Pragyan, has work to do. He must not only demonstrate that India can move on the lunar surface, but also carry out various scientific activities.
ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), which oversees the Chandrayaan-3 mission, has shown the first images of its rover moving on the Moon. ” This is how the Chandrayaan-3 rover descended from the lander to the lunar surface “, announces the space agency in a tweet on Aug. 25, 2023. The short, 30-second footage shows Pragyan moving on a ramp of the lander, before its wheels finally make contact with the Moon’s surface.
The stretched shadows of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon
In addition to the first wheel spins of an Indian rover on the Moon, this brief video shows the long shadows of the equipment of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. When the images were obtained, it was the lunar morning. India did not land exactly at the south pole of the Moon, but the latitude of the mission remains very high: this is also why the solar panel must be positioned vertically.
These pictures of Pragyan can remind another famous rover in space history: Sojourner. This small NASA rover landed on Mars in 1997: it was the first time that a rover rolled on the surface of the red planet. Pragyan’s design by ISRO is quite comparable to Sojourner’s.
For ISRO, the first movements of the Pragyan rover on the Moon are a big step. India had a limited budget for Chandrayaan-3: the lunar mission cost less than some films, such as Gravity. With “only” 75 million dollars, the Indian space agency managed to land on the south pole of the Moon. Especially since the pressure was great: 4 years earlier, the Chandrayaan-2 mission had ended in a crash on the Moon.
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