An artist applies final touches to a tattoo sketch on the back of a woman, depicting India's LVM3 M4 carrying Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, to celebrate the landing of the spacecraft on the Moon, inside a tattoo studio in Ahmedabad, India, August 24, 2023. The words of the tattoo read: "Today the country shines more than the Moon". REUTERS/Amit Dave TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
India’s Pragyan rover, stationed on the Moon as a component of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, came across a substantial crater measuring 4 meters in diameter on the lunar terrain.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that the six-wheeled solar-powered rover found the crater about three metres from the edge on August 27 (Sunday) and was later directed to a safer path.
On August 27, 2023, the Rover came across a 4-meter diameter crater positioned 3 meters ahead of its location.
It’s now safely heading on a new path.#Chandrayaan_3#Ch3 pic.twitter.com/QfOmqDYvSF
The rover has so far traversed around 8 metres on the lunar surface since the lander landed and will continue to study the Moon’s geology and atmosphere in the unexplored southern pole.
It has a life span of only 14 Earth days, which is equivalent to one lunar day, and has 10 more days to go.
On August 23, India scripted history as the Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully landed on the Moon’s south pole, becoming the first nation to achieve the historic feat.
Overall, India became the fourth country after the US, China, and Russia to have successfully landed on the Moon’s surface.
After the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s south pole on August 23, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (August 26) announced that the landing point will be called “Shiv Shakti”. He added that there was also a discussion over naming the point where Chandrayaan-2 crashed in 2019 and the point has been named “Tiranga”.
The announcements were made when Prime Minister Modi was at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) headquarters in Bengaluru, where he congratulated the scientists who contributed to the moon mission’s success.
ISRO Chief S Somanath on Thursday said that exploring the Moon’s south pole offered potential discoveries of water and much scientific data.
There has been much curiosity about the south pole ever since Chandrayaan-1 recorded evidence of water on the Moon.
It is believed that water ice on the Moon is capable of providing fuel, oxygen, and drinking water for future missions, but its rough terrain makes landing challenging.
