American space agency NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has captured the image of the landing site of India's Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon's surface.
NASA said that the LROC (short for LRO Camera) acquired an oblique view (42-degree slew angle) of the Vikram lander four days after it landed on the lunar surface. The bright halo around the vehicle resulted from the rocket plume interacting with the fine-grained regolith (soil).
India scripted history by soft-landing the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar surface on August 23. India became the fourth country to touch the lunar surface and the first to ever reach the south pole of the moon.
The Chandrayaan-3 landing site is located about 600 kilometres from the Moon's South Pole, NASA said.
.@NASA's LRO spacecraft recently imaged the Chandrayaan-3 lander on the Moon's surface.
September 5, 2023
The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) Chandrayaan-3 touched down on Aug. 23, 2023, about 600 kilometers from the Moon's South Pole.
MORE >> https://t.co/phmOblRlGO pic.twitter.com/CyhFrnvTjTLRO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington.
Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon, the space agency said.
ISRO on Monday announced that Chandryaan-3 mission's Vikram lander has been put into sleep mode. The rover, Pragyan was set on the sleep mode on Saturday.
"Vikram Lander is set into sleep mode around 08:00 Hrs. IST (8 am) today. Prior to that, in-situ experiments by ChaSTE, RAMBHA-LP and ILSA payloads are performed at the new location. The data collected is received at the Earth," ISRO said in an update on micro-blogging site X.
The payloads were switched off and the "lander receivers are kept on."
"Vikram will fall asleep next to Pragyan once the solar power is depleted and the battery is drained. Hoping for their awakening, around September 22, 2023,'" the space agency said.
ISRO chief S Somanath had earlier said the lunar mission's rover and lander would be put to 'sleep' to withstand the night on the Moon.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
September 5, 2023
Anaglyph is a simple visualization of the object or terrain in three dimensions from stereo or multi-view images.
The Anaglyph presented here is created using NavCam Stereo Images, which consist of both a left and right image captured onboard the Pragyan… pic.twitter.com/T8ksnvrovAEssential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
