Starting its beautiful journey on July 14, 2023, Chandrayaan 3 has finally soft-landed on the South pole of the lunar surface, making India the first country to achieve this feat.
Precisely at 6.03 p.m., the lander touched the lunar surface, with euphoric celebrations erupting at the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru.
Chandrayaan-3 is equipped with the lander Vikram, Pragyan rover, and a propulsion module, weighing around 3,900 kilograms.
More and more information floods in as ISRO shows the Pragyan rover roaming around Shiv Shakti Point in pursuit of lunar secrets at the South Pole.
The historic Chandrayaan-3 mission has already achieved two of the three main objectives: a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface and demonstrating the rover's roaming capability on the lunar surface. The last objective, "conducting in-situ scientific experiments," is currently being executed by the rover.
On August 27, ISRO reports on the ongoing in-situ experiments, updating that the lander payload, ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment), used to measure the temperature profile of the lunar toposoil consisting of 10 individual temperature sensors, is measuring temperature variations of the lunar surface/near-surface at various depths, as recorded during the probe's penetration. The probe is capable of reaching a depth of 10 cm beneath the surface.
"Detailed observations are underway," ISRO concludes the update.