Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 may not have survived the long lunar night
(ORDO NEWS) — After successfully landing on the Moon in August, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) found itself in a difficult situation – their Chandrayaan-3 lander and Pragyan rover went into hibernation mode before the long lunar night, and have not succeeded since. establish contact with them.
In August, Chandrayaan 3 made India the fourth country to land on the lunar surface and the first to reach the lunar south pole.
At first, the mission was successful. The lander and rover conducted experiments to measure temperatures at the landing site and analyze the composition of the lunar soil, detecting important elements such as sulfur, aluminum, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon and oxygen.
Sulfur in particular was of particular interest because it could potentially be used to make concrete, which could be the key to future space construction projects.
However, before the long lunar night, the temperature on the lunar surface dropped to extremely low values, about -250°C, which created certain difficulties for the lunar rover and lander. ISRO engineers put the rover into sleep mode with the hope of waking up at sunrise. But, unfortunately, the sun was rising, and the lunar rover and the Vikram module were silent.
ISRO staff did their best to establish contact with the devices. However, at the moment there are no signals. ISRO head A.S. Kiran Kumar stated that “the chances of waking up are decreasing with each passing hour.” Without communication with the lander, there is no way to know its current state.
In the coming weeks, scientists will try to establish contact. This situation becomes critical, since every hour reduces the likelihood of resuming the mission. The Indian Space Research Organization hopes that Chandrayaan-3 and the Pragyan rover will become active again and continue exploration of the Moon.
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