Moon mission will go to 'sleep' after lunar sunset

NEW DELHI: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) began putting the Chandrayaan-3's lander, Vikram, and rover, Pragyan, to sleep on Saturday, confirming that the primary objectives of the lunar mission were successfully completed.

- Soumya Pillai

The agency did not rule out the possibility of the robot and the scientific instruments being revived when the Sun rises again on the Moon around September 22, a period before which the devices will be in complete darkness and severely cold temperatures that are expected to be punishing for the batteries.

"We have achieved all our primary mission objectives. From September 3, before the lunar sunset, the instruments will be turned off. The collected data will now be analysed," Isro chairman S Somanath said.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) began putting the Chandrayaan-3's lander, Vikram, and rover, Pragyan, to sleep on Saturday, confirming that the primary objectives of the country's third lunar mission were successfully completed.

And the agency hoped that the robot and the scientific instruments can be revived when the Sun rises again on the Moon around September 22, a period before which the devices will be in complete darkness and severely cold temperatures that are expected to be punishing for the batteries that store power for the devices.

"We have achieved all our primary mission objectives. From September 3, before the lunar sunset, the instruments will be turned off. The collected data will now be analysed by our teams," Isro chairman S Somanath told HT.

Hours later, Isro confirmed. in a tweet that Pragyan had been "safely parked and set into sleep mode".