India's moon mission Chandrayaan-3 made a perfect landing today near the South Pole of the moon. The next big manoeuvre was the rolling out of the Pragyan rover, which will send data from the spot to the lander that will be relayed to space agency ISRO.
The launch of the rover, though, took time. This is because the rover cannot be launched till the dust kicked up by the touchdown of the Vikram lander is dissipated. The gravity of moon being a fraction of that of Earth, dust does not settle the way it does on Earth.
The scientists were concerned that if the rover is rolled out before the dust dissipates, it can damage the cameras and other sensitive equipment on the rover. It was, however, quicker than a day that ISRO Chief S Somnath had spoken of.
"The rover will come out in a few hours. Sometimes it takes a day also... Once the rover comes out, it will do two experiments," Mr Somnath had told reporters in the euphoric moments after the landing. "We are looking at a very exciting time after Pragyan's entry... It will do experiments for 14 days," he had added.
The rover Pragyan will first extend its solar arrays and roll out with a wire connected to the lander Vikram. The wire will be snapped once the rover is stable on the lunar surface. It will then start its scientific mission.
The experiments will continue for 14 days -- which is a single moon day. As the night on the moon begins, the solar-powered equipment is likely to shut down.
The data to be sent by Pragyan is of vital importance, given the traces of water found in the area. This was detected by a NASA instrument aboard the ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 probe in 2009.
Chandrayaan-3 is the first moon mission to land near the South Pole of the moon and this is the first opportunity to explore the possibility of the presence of water -- which will be crucial commodity in view of future moon missions.
The presence of water holds hope for future moon missions -- it could be used as a source of drinking water, to cool equipment and broken down to produce oxygen. It can also have clues to the origins of oceans.
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