IN AUGUST, India achieved what only the US, the USSR and China had done before and successfully landed a craft on the moon.
The Indian Space Research Organisation’s Vikram lander and Pragyan rover carried out a string of scientific experiments that will shed light on the composition of the moon’s surface, and the former performed a short take-off and repositioning to give engineers insight for future missions.
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Around two weeks after the Chandrayaan-3 mission began – a single period of lunar daylight – both devices went into “sleep mode” and prepared for temperatures to plunge as low as -238°C, which would be very likely to destroy electronic components. While there were tentative hopes that the rover could reawaken for another day’s exploration, that didn’t happen.
at the University of Leicester, UK, says the chances of reviving the lander or rover now are extremely slim, as they have passed through several lunar nights, but this takes nothing away from the mission’s “phenomenal achievement”.
Chandrayaan-3 should be considered a success by any measure, she says, but given its budget of just £60 million ($74 million), it also represents a triumph of careful planning.
