Less than 24 hours after becoming the first country to land a space probe on the moon’s south pole, India has already begun exploring the lunar surface using a robot.
Pragyan, which means “wisdom,” left the lander shortly after landing on the Moon. With six wheels and powered by solar energy, during its two weeks of life, this robot will travel to the lunar south pole, an unexplored region and where there are large amounts of frozen water, collect and analyze soil samples and transmit images and scientific data to the earth.
The first image captured by one of the instruments of the Indian space probe, shortly after landing on the Moon, shows a relatively flat area.
The successful landing of the “Chandrayaan-3” mission came just days after Russia failed to land the Luna-25 probe in the same region of the Moon.
On Wednesday, just after the investigation began, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of a “historic day” for the country and a “triumph for all mankind.”
The spacecraft, launched on July 14, took 40 days to travel and landed on the Moon on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. (Lisbon time).
The landing is a special feat for India, which saw the failure of its predecessor mission, Chandrayaan-2, in 2019, which had the same goal and failed precisely in the deceleration maneuver to land on the lunar surface.
Four years after a failed attempt, India has now joined the very small club of the great space powers – the United States, Russia and China – that have reached the surface of the Moon.
In 2014, India became the first Asian country to place a spacecraft in Mars orbit and plans to send a probe to the Sun in September. The Indian Space Research Organization is expected to launch a three-day manned mission into Earth orbit next year and also wants, in 2025, to launch a joint mission with Japan to send another probe to the Moon.
India also intends to send a mission to Venus in the next two years.
Source: TSF
