NEW DELHI – India’s moon rover has finished its stroll at the lunar floor and been put into sleep mode lower than two weeks after its historical touchdown close to the lunar south pole, India’s house venture mentioned.
“The rover completes its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into sleep mode,” with daylight on that part of the moon coming to an end, the Indian Space Research Organization said in a statement late Saturday.
The rover’s payloads are turned off and the data it collected has been transmitted to the Earth via the lander, the statement said.
The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate only for one lunar day, which is equal to 14 days on Earth.
“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!” the remark mentioned.
There was no word on the outcome of the rover searches for signs of frozen water on the lunar surface that could help future astronaut missions, as a potential source of drinking water or to make rocket fuel.
Earlier this week, the the space agency said the moon rover confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements. The rover’s laser-induced spectroscope instrument also detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon on the surface, it said.
The Indian Express newspaper said the electronics on board the Indian moon mission are not designed to withstand very low temperatures, less than minus 120 degrees Celsius ( minus 184 degrees Fahrenheit) during the nighttime on the moon. The lunar night also extends for as long as 14 days on Earth.
Pallava Bagla, a science writer and co-author of books on India’s space exploration, said the rover has limited battery power.
The data is back on Earth and will be analyzed by Indian scientists as a first look and then by the global community, he said
By sunrise on the moon, the rover may or may not wake up because the electronics die at such cold temperatures, Bagla said.
“Making electronic circuits and components that can survive the deep cold temperature of the moon, that technology doesn’t exist in India,” he mentioned.
After a failed try to land at the moon in 2019, India closing week joined the United States, the Soviet Union and China as simplest the fourth nation to reach this milestone.
The a hit venture showcases India’s emerging status as a generation and house powerhouse and dovetails with Prime Minister Narendra Modi want to venture a picture of an ascendant nation announcing its position some of the world elite.
The venture started greater than a month in the past at an estimated value of $75 million.
India’s luck got here simply days after Russia’s Luna-25, which used to be aiming for the similar lunar area, spun into an out of control orbit and crashed. It have been meant to be the primary a hit Russian lunar touchdown after an opening of 47 years.
Russia’s head of the state-controlled house company Roscosmos attributed the failure to the shortage of experience because of the lengthy smash in lunar analysis that adopted the closing Soviet venture to the moon in 1976.
Active for the reason that Nineteen Sixties, India has introduced satellites for itself and different international locations, and effectively put one in orbit round Mars in 2014. India is making plans its first venture to the International Space Station subsequent 12 months, in collaboration with the United States.