Efforts On To Wake Up Chandrayaan-3 From Sleep Mode, No Contact Yet With Vikram Lander, Pragyan Rover: ISRO

Chandrayaan-3: The Indian space agency said that no signals have been received from the Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover, however, efforts to establish contact will continue.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday said that all efforts are underway to establish communication with the Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover to wake up the Chandrayaan-3 mission from the ''sleep mode.'' The apex Indian space agency further said that no signals have been received from the Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover, however, efforts to establish contact will continue.

“Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Efforts have been made to establish communication with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to ascertain their wake-up condition. As of now, no signals have been received from them. Efforts to establish contact will continue,” ISRO said on X (formerly Twitter).

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
Efforts have been made to establish communication with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to ascertain their wake-up condition.

As of now, no signals have been received from them.

Efforts to establish contact will continue. — ISRO (@isro) September 22, 2023

After a 40-day journey into space, the Chandrayaan-3 lander, 'Vikram', touched down on August 23 at the uncharted lunar South Pole making India the first country to do so. After transversing over 100 meters on the lunar surface from the Shiv Shakti Point, the touchdown spot of the Vikram lander on the lunar surface, the Pragyan Rover was safely parked and set into ''sleep mode'' on September 2. 

India also became only the fourth nation after the US, Russia and China to successfully conduct a lunar landing mission. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft put down the Vikram lander on the lunar surface, tilting to a horizontal position ahead of landing. 

Shedding more light on the wake-up operation, former ISRO scientist Tapan Mishra said that even if the rover fails to revive and the lander works, it will be a ''miracle.''

“Originally the Chandrayaan lander rover was designed for only 14 days of operation. It is expected that the temperature will go down to -140 degrees Celsius or lower, in the Southern pole it can reach down to -200 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, no plastic material, no carbon power material or no electronics can survive. They will crack. But I'm hopeful that ISRO must have done a lot of thermal management thing,” Mishra told news agwency ANI in Kolkata.

He further said, “If they are successful in the thermal management, if ISRO's design becomes successful, and when the lunar daytime starts then all payloads in the lander and the rover may start working. Even if the rover doesn't work and the lander works, it will really be a miracle.”

Mishra asserted that if it survives one night then it will survive many more lunar nights. “And if it happens, then we will be in a league that can operate the lunar lander, rover, even throughout the year. If it survives one lunar night, I'm sure it will survive many more lunar nights and it may probably operate from 6 months to one year. That will be a great thing,” he said.

The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14.