The story so far: Scripting history, the Chandrayaan-3 lander landed in the south polar region of the moon on August 23 at 6:03 pm IST, making India the first country to successfully soft-land in that area. The Vikram lander along with the Pragyan rover have since completed a small suite of surface tests. China’s Yutu-2 rover is the only other such instrument currently active on the moon.

Chandrayaan-3 is India’s second attempt to land on the moon. The first was Chandrayaan-2, whose lander module crashed on the moon in 2019.

China had landed a lander-rover module in the South Pole-Aitken Basin (this is not as close to the south polar region as Chandrayaan) in 2018. Both are operational as of date.

Here’s a look at China’s missions to the moon.

Chang’e

Since 2007, China has been launching lunar missions comprising orbiters, landers, rovers, and sample-return spacecraft. While Chang’e-1 and 2 launched lunar orbiters, Chang’e-3 launched the Yutu rover, which conducted a series of experiments on the lunar surface.

Planned initially as a back-up for Chang’e 3, the Chang’e 4 mission launched Yutu-2 on December 8, 2018, and it became the first rover to successfully soft-land on the moon’s far side.

After its launch, Chang’e 4 entered lunar orbit on December 12, 2018 and later completed three weeks of orbital manoeuvres before the spacecraft made a controlled landing in the Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitkin Basin on January 3, 2019.

The rover, on the far side of the moon, hibernates in the lunar night and functions during the day. The lander that transported it, Chang’e 4, is still operational and is a communication relay between the rover and control stations on the earth together with the orbiter, Queqiao. Details of data collected by the rover and the experiments conducted by it have not been made public by the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA).

Chang’e 5 was launched on November 23, 2020, with two lunar orbiters, a lander, and an ascent vehicle. The primary mission objective was to collect surface samples from the Mons Rumker region of Oceanus Procellarum on the moon. After the launch, Chang’e 5 completed a lunar orbit before the descender spacecraft separated on November 29, 2020. Lowering into a circular orbit, the descender along with the lander landed on Mons Rumker, a vast volcanic plain.

The lander was equipped with a robotic arm with a scoop, a coring drill, and a chamber with a regolith storing capacity of up to 4 kg. (Regolith is the layer of soil, composed of loose rocks, dust, and other debris that covers the moon’s surface).

The lander also had the Panoramic Camera (PCAM), Lunar Regolith Penetrating Radar (LRPR), and a visible and near-infrared Lunar Mineralogical Spectrometer (LMS). With a life of one lunar day (two weeks), the lander did most of the drilling and sampling within 48 hours of landing. From a depth of 1 metre, the lander collected and stored 1.731 kg of lunar regolith and later transferred it to the ascender module.

This module then travelled to the orbiter and transferred the sample container to the return capsule, which fired its rockets and entered the earth-moon orbit before landing in Inner Mongolia in northern China on December 17, 2020. Before returning to the earth, the orbiter separated from the return capsule, fired its rockets and headed for the earth-sun Lagrange point L1 to observe the sun. (This is the same location in space to which India’s Aditya L-1 satellite is currently headed.)

China has more moon missions planned — Chang’e 6,7 and 8 in 2024, 2026 and 2027— before finally sending a crewed mission to the moon by 2030. Continuing its sample return mission, Chang’e 6, a back up to Chang’e 5, will also have a lander with a scooping arm, return container, and ascender. This mission will also land on the far side of the moon, in the South Pole-Aitken Basin.

In 2026, Chang’e 7 is scheduled to expand on lunar south pole exploration by conducting detailed surveys, analysing the terrain, and studying the geological composition, locations of water ice, and the space environment. The mission will focus on detecting water ice in parts of the moon’s permanently shadowed craters.

In 2027, Chang’e 8 will test technologies necessary to construct a lunar science base in the south pole, carrying a lander, a rover, a flying detector, and a 3D-printing module.

Chang’e mission aims

The Chang’e lunar exploration missions have seen evolving phases of the Chinese space programme since they began in 2007. Initial missions Chang’e 1 and 2 were designed to launch an orbiter and capture high resolution photos of the lunar surface. Chang’e 3 launched in 2013 comprised of a rover (Yutu) which explored 3 sq. km of the moon for 90 earth days collecting data to understand the moon’s elemental composition and the lunar subsurface. This mission demonstrated China’s capability to soft land on the moon.

However, the programme’s aims changed with Chang’e 4, turning its focus towards the southern shadowed areas of the moon. Launching yet another lander-rover in 2018, Chang’e 4 was tasked with performing a controlled landing in the Von Karman crater in the South Pole-Aitken Basin and capture humankind’s first photos of the far side of the moon taken from the surface. Armed with spectrometers and radars, the rover studied the composition of the lunar surface there.

China then changed Chang’e mission’s aim to returning samples of lunar regolith to the earth with Chang’e 5, which brought 1.731 kg of lunar regolith back.

Chang’e 4’s lander and Yutu-2 rover were supposed to last for two months, but they are still functional, and have been sending data and high-resolution photos of the far side of the moon. Both the lander and rover use radioisotopic heat sources to maintain their temperatures through lunar nights.

Chang’e 5 had a specific lifetime of 23 days from launch on November 23, 2020, to return on December 16, 2020. After lunar orbit capture on November 28, the lander and descender/ascent vehicle separated and landed on the lunar surface on December 1. As the lander was capable of collecting samples for only 1 lunar day ), it lifted off via the ascender on December 3 and transferred the samples to the return capsule, before crashing to the moon’s surface on December 7.

The return capsule landed with parachutes on December 16 in northern China. Before entering earth orbit, the orbiter headed to the earth-sun L1 Lagrange point for a mission to study the sun.

As of 2021, the orbiter observed the earth and the sun, and was on its way to the moon. Some reports suggest that the Chang’e 5 orbiter may have performed a lunar flyby before heading to asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa— a part of China’s asteroid sample-return mission scheduled for 2025.

New Delhi:

As the Aditya-L1 spacecraft began its voyage to study the sun, Chandrayaan-3 rover Pragyan notched another landmark on the moon. Indian Space Research Organisation announced that the rover has traversed over 100 metres and is still going strong.

“Pragyan 100*… Meanwhile, over the Moon, Pragan Rover has traversed over 100 meters and continuing,” ISRO said in a tweet.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

Pragyan 100*

Meanwhile, over the Moon, Pragan Rover has traversed over 100 meters and continuing. pic.twitter.com/J1jR3rP6CZ

— ISRO (@isro) September 2, 2023

ISRO chief S Somanath also said that the process of putting the rover and lander into “sleep” will start withing a day or two.

“Process of putting rover and lander into sleep to start in a day or two as they have to withstand the night,” ISRO chief said.

Pushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has privatised space launches and is looking to open the sector to foreign investment as it targets a five-fold increase in its share of the global launch market within the next decade.

As space turns into a global business, the country is also banking on the success of ISRO to showcase its prowess in the sector.

New Delhi:

India’s space agency has shared a video of the Pragyan rover being rotated on the Moon’s surface – remotely from the command centre in Bengaluru – in search of a route that avoids craters and rocks on the lunar surface. The rover and Vikram, the lander that carried Pragyan to the Moon, are racing to finish experiments before a lunar night (which lasts 14 Earth days) sets next week.

“The rover was rotated in search of a safe route. The rotation was captured by a Lander Imager Camera,” the Indian Space Research Organisation posted on X (formerly Twitter). “It feels as though a child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama, while the mother watches affectionately…”

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
The rover was rotated in search of a safe route. The rotation was captured by a Lander Imager Camera.

It feels as though a child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama, while the mother watches affectionately.
Isn’t it? pic.twitter.com/w5FwFZzDMp

— ISRO (@isro) August 31, 2023

This latest update from the Moon comes a day after Pragyan shared an image of Vikram – the first using its NavCam, or navigation camera and the first since it was deployed. All visuals shared before were taken by the lander; happy ISRO scientists posted the “image of the mission” on X.

READ | “Smile, Please!”: Rover Pragyan Clicks Image Of Lander Vikram On Moon

Pragyan’s “Moon Walk” Video

On Monday too ISRO shared a “re-route” update from the Moon, noting Pragyan had been sent on a different, and safer, path, after coming face-to-face with a four-meter diameter crater.

READ | Rover Pragyan Faces Large Crater During Moon Walk, Sent On “New Path”

Pragyan Confirms Presence Of Sulphur Near Moon’s South Pole

One of the instruments on the rover – the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope – has confirmed the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface near south pole, ISRO said Tuesday, adding that aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon and oxygen had also detected.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

In-situ scientific experiments continue …..

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) instrument onboard the Rover unambiguously confirms the presence of Sulphur (S) in the lunar surface near the south pole, through first-ever in-situ measurements.… pic.twitter.com/vDQmByWcSL

— ISRO (@isro) August 29, 2023

ISRO said in-situ measurements revealed, “unambiguously”, the presence of sulphur – something not feasible using instruments onboard orbiters – and that they were now hunting for hydrogen.

India Makes Space History

The nation took a giant leap on August 23 after Chandrayaan-3’s module – Vikram – touched down; India became only the fourth country – after the United States, China, and Russia – to soft land on the moon’s surface – and the first to go as close as it did to the Moon’s South Pole.

India’s next big space mission is to launch on Saturday – Aditya L1 – which will orbit the Sun and observe solar activities and their effects on space weather in real time.

The Indian Length Analysis Organisation (ISRO) on August 28 stated the Pragyan rover at the lunar floor got here throughout a 4-meter diameter crater located 3 meters forward of its location. 
| Picture Credit score: ISRO

The Indian Length Analysis Organisation (ISRO) on August 28 stated the Pragyan rover at the lunar floor got here throughout a 4-meter diameter crater located 3 meters forward of its location.

Moving to social media platform X, previously referred to as Twitter, ISRO stated, the rover was once commanded to retrace the trail, and that it’s heading at the fresh trail.

Previous Nilesh M. Desai, Director, Length Programs Centre (SAC) on August 27 stated that the Chandrayaan-3’s rover module Pragyan, transferring at the floor of the moon, is in a “race against time” and that the ISRO scientists are running to guard a most distance of the uncharted South pole in the course of the six-wheeled rover.

The Indian Length Analysis Organisation (ISRO) on August 26 spared a video appearing the Pragyan rover roaming round Shiv Shakti level, the landing website of lander Vikram, at the lunar floor.  

The Pragyan rover rolled out from the Vikram lander and began transferring round at the lunar floor, marking a a hit upcoming degree hours next Chandrayaan-3 made its historical touchdown at the Moon. Bharat was the fourth nation to effectively land at the moon because the Chandrayaan-3’s lander module, with the rover in its stomach, effectively made a cushy touchdown at the lunar floor on Wednesday.

(With inputs from ANI)

A series of pictures appearing the rollout of Chandrayaan-3 rover Pragyan from the lander to the lunar floor as seen through Lander Imager Digital camera on August 23, 2023. Picture: X/@isro by way of PTi

Giving a much-awaited glimpse of Pragyan rover at the lunar floor, the Indian Range Analysis Organisation (ISRO) on Friday stated it effectively traversed a distance of about 8 metres. The length company absolved two movies of Pragyan, two days later the Chandrayaan-3’s lander Vikram made a historic soft-landing on the Moon’s south pole.

The primary video, which runs for 30 seconds, displays Pragyan rover rolling out from the lander onto the lunar floor. The video used to be captured through the lander imager digital camera on Wednesday. The second one video displays the deployment of the ramp from the lander module previous to the roll-out of the rover and deployment of the sun panel of the rover.

“A two-segment ramp facilitated the roll-down of the rover. A solar panel enabled the rover to generate power. Here is how the rapid deployment of the ramp and solar panel took place, prior to the rolldown of the rover. The deployment mechanisms, totalling 26 in the Ch-3 mission, were developed at U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC)/ISRO, Bengaluru,” ISRO stated on X (previously Twitter) date freeing the second one video.

Offering extra updates at the rover’s motion, ISRO stated that Pragyan has effectively traversed a distance of about 8 metres and that the payloads were “turned on”. “All planned Rover movements have been verified. The Rover has successfully traversed a distance of about eight meters. The Rover payloads  Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) are turned on,” ISRO stated. The target of the 2 payloads is to derive the fundamental composition within the neighborhood of the touchdown website online.

The lander and the rover with a undertaking week of 1 lunar generation (14 earth days) have clinical payloads to hold out experiments at the lunar floor.

The lander has 4 payloads to review thermal conductivity, temperature, seismicity, and alternative traits of lunar floor. Of them, 3 payloads – ILSA, RAMBHA and ChaSTE – were became on.

“All payloads on the propulsion module, lander module, and rover are performing nominally,” ISRO added.

Defined | Why did Chandrayaan-3 land on the near side of the moon?

ISRO deletes put up

ISRO on Friday morning absolved photographs of the Chandrayaan-2’s digital camera recognizing the Chandrayaan-3’s lander at the social media platform handiest to delete it next.

“The Chandrayaan-2’s Orbiter High-Resolution Camera (OHRC) spots Chandrayaan-3 Lander,” the length company had stated.

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