The lander and rover were spotted on the new moon in India by another lunar probe.
the Chandrayaan-3 Mission from India, which landed on the moon August 23, it shines in new images from a fellow spacecraft in orbit. The lander can be seen in radar images taken by someone else Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Moon Mission: Chandrayaan-2Which reached lunar orbit in 2019.
ISRO issued New photos on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Saturday (September 9), based on data captured three days earlier. However, the Chandrayaan-3 lander is not active at the moment; The near side of the Moon (where the mission landed) has now been dark for two weeks, meaning all solar-powered instruments are in a dormant state.
Related: India’s Chandrayaan-3 robotic lunar explorers do not have heaters. Can they survive the frigid lunar night?
The Chandrayaan-3 lander and its small rover may have emerged from their slumber when sunlight appears again, but the duo has achieved all of their main goals, according to ISRO officials. The rover, called Pragyan, It has been published successfully From the Vikram lander and took pictures of the surrounding area.
This is not the first time India’s moon mission has been photographed space. NASA Lunar reconnaissance vehiclewhich takes high-resolution images of the moon in orbit, captured the historic mission earlier this month.
India is only the fourth country to land on the moon, after the Soviet Union, the United States, and China. But there may be more missions coming soon. NASA It has funded several robotic missions to support it Artemis programSome of which may fall in 2023.
Artemis aims to establish a permanent human presence on and around the Moon by the end of the 2020s. Artemis 3 It will be the first human surface mission in the series; It is scheduled to be launched in late 2025 or 2026.
Many countries are targeting the lunar South Pole, including India, to learn more about the ice reserves found there. If all goes as planned, NASA plans to establish one or more bases in this region to use lunar ice to support astronauts and their machines.
India is not the first country to attempt a landing on the moon recently. For example, Russia tried to send its lander last month to the surface, but… Luna-25 probe crash During a landing preparation maneuver. Attempts have also been made in recent memory by private companies in Israel and Japan, and more recently by the Japanese National Space Agency Launched a lunar lander called SLIM Which will try to land a few months from now.
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