Chandrayaan-3's Pragyaan rover ramps down Vikram lander to walk on Moon: Watch video here

Chandrayaan-3 has made a historic soft landing on the lunar surface on Wednesday at 6:04 PM. With this landing, India has become the first country to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole and the fourth country overall who have landed on the moon. All the earlier successful landings were on the equatorial region of the moon. Chandrayaan-3 has two main components – a lander named Vikram and a rover named Prayaan, which was housed inside the Vikram lander. After the successful soft landing of the Vikram lander, ISRO checked for inclination, terrain condition and temperature and waited for the dust to settle. After four hours, the Pragyaan rover ramped down from the rover.

ISRO has now shared a video recorded by the Vikram lander in which the Pragyaan rover can be seen ramping down from the Vikram lander. In an X post, ISRO wrote, “Here is how the Chandrayaan-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander to the Lunar surface”.

… … and here is how the Chandrayaan-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander to the Lunar surface. pic.twitter.com/nEU8s1At0W

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— ISRO (@isro) August 25, 2023

Both the Pragyaan rover and Vikram lander will conduct various experiments and observations on the lunar surface for the next 14 days. ISRO via an X post today said that all activities are on schedule and all systems are working normally. It also informed that the rover mobility operations have commenced and the three of the lander payloads, Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA), Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA) and Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) were turned on.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
All activities are on schedule.
All systems are normal.

🔸Lander Module payloads ILSA, RAMBHA and ChaSTE are turned ON today.

🔸Rover mobility operations have commenced.

🔸SHAPE payload on the Propulsion Module was turned ON on Sunday.

— ISRO (@isro) August 24, 2023

The lander with its onboard instruments will study plasma (electrons and ions) density, and thermal characteristics of the lunar surface, measure seismic activity on the lunar surface and gather data to delineate the lunar crust and mantle. In addition to this, the rover will communicate with the lander, which will communicate directly with Earth. 

The six-wheeled Pragyaan rover will now crawl the challenging lunar terrain at the speed of one centimetre per second. The rover will use the onboard Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) to derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition will study the lunar surface for elements including magnesium, silicon, potassium, calcium and iron. It will also assist in understanding the Moon’s atmosphere, and day and night.