India is attempting to revive its lunar rover for one last mission
Published on Sep 22, 2023 at 4:33 PM (UTC+4)
by Andie Reeves
Last updated on Sep 25, 2023 at 12:41 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
India recently made history by landing the first rover on the Moon’s South Pole.
It became the first country to land on the Moon’s South Pole, and the fourth ever country to reach the Moon.
Now, its space agency is trying to wake the lunar rover up again for one last mission.
READ MORE: India’s historic Moon landing cost less than what it cost to film Interstellar
During its stay on the Moon, the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover made some exciting discoveries.
These included giving us our first-ever look at the South Pole of the Moon as well as finding evidence of sulfur.
After performing a moon hop successfully, Vikram and Pragyan fell asleep next to each other.
And by ‘fell asleep’ we mean went into sleep mode because their batteries were dead.
Now, two weeks later, India (and the rest of the world) is waiting to see if they will wake up.
The instruments are parked at Shivshakti Point, with their solar panels carefully positioned towards the sun.
It’s predicted that when the sun rises over that point they will be revived.
But the Indian Space Research Organisation was unsure whether the instruments would survive the lunar night, which can get as cold as -200°C.
The reactivation is set to happen between September 22 and September 23.
“We have arranged solar batteries and panels have been set in such a direction that when Vikram faces sunrays a communication circuit will get activated,” Jitendra Singh said.
“Both Vikram and Pragyan are awaiting a wake-up call.”
Once the sunlight is considered bright enough, a team will start sending commands to the lander and rover.
If all goes according to plan, the instruments will spring back into action.
This will give them another 14 days of data collection.
That’s a lot of time to make even more discoveries.
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Andie is a content writer from South Africa with a background in broadcasting and journalism. Starting her career in the glossy pages of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, Andie has a broad portfolio, covering everything from sustainability solutions to celebrity car collections. When not at her laptop Andie can be found sewing, recording her podcast, taking board games too seriously or road-tripping in her bright green Kia.
