On Tuesday, NASA, the United States’ space agency, released a photograph pinpointing the location of India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander, Vikram, on the lunar surface. This image was captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft and reveals Vikram at the center of the image, casting a distinct shadow against the bright surroundings. The image, measuring 1,738 meters in width, was taken by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center at Arizona State University. According to NASA, the LRO Camera acquired this view at a 42-degree angle, resulting in the bright halo around the lander due to interactions with the Moon’s fine-grained soil caused by the rocket plume.
Chandrayaan-3 represents India’s third lunar probe mission, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on July 14, 2023. The mission successfully landed the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover on the Moon’s unexplored south pole on August 23, 2023, marking a significant achievement as the first mission to reach this region, approximately 600 kilometers from the Moon’s south pole. Recently, ISRO announced that Vikram and Pragyan entered a dormant state after two weeks of lunar surface investigations, triggered by the onset of lunar night, which lasts for 14 days, following 14 days of continuous sunlight on the Moon.
The rover, Pragyan, entered its dormant phase on September 2, followed by the lander, Vikram, two days later. Notably, ISRO anticipates that both Vikram and Pragyan will reawaken around September 22 when the next lunar day commences. ISRO holds optimism that these devices will retain ample exploration capacity for further lunar discoveries.
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