The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said on Wednesday that the Pragyan rover traveled a distance of about 15 meters and captured a picture of the Vikram lander.
The Indian space agency has released several images taken by the Pragyan rover.
ISRO posted photos on social media platform X and wrote, “Beyond Borders, Across Moonscapes: India’s Majesty Knows No Boundaries! Once again, fellow traveler Pragyan captures Vikram in no time! This iconic photo was taken today at about 11 a.m. IST from about 50 feet.”
According to the ISRO, the Chandrayaan’s last coordinates are 3 — 69.373 S, 32.319 E, well near the intended 4 km x 2.4 km landing point at 69.367621 S, 32.348126 E.
The image shared by ISRO showed off two of the Vikram lander’s vital instruments: Chandra’s Surface Thermo-physical Experiment (ChaSTE) probe and the Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) probe.
The Pragyan rover has two navigation cameras in the front parts. The data collected by the cameras is processed at ISRO’s Space Applications Center in Ahmedabad.
The rover’s data collection and experiments could help determine whether there is oxygen and hydrogen on the moon.
The Chandrayan-3 rover is expected to conduct experiments for 14 days, including an analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface, ISRO had said after Chandrayan-3’s successful landing on the moon.
“The rover successfully covered a distance of about 8 meters (26.2 feet),” the Indian space agency said on Aug. 25.
On Tuesday, ISRO said the rover confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements near the south pole of the moon as it searched for signs of frozen water.
The rover’s laser-induced spectroscope instrument also detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon on the lunar surface, ISRO said in a post on its website.
The Pragyan rover will also study the moon’s atmosphere and seismic activity.
