ISRO hoping to wake up Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram and Pragyan on September 22

ISRO hopes to awaken Vikram and Pragyan on September 22, when sunlight returns to the moon. If successful, it will allow the two to carry out more experiments and potentially bring back samples from the moon

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is looking to awaken the Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover as dawn will be breaking on the moon on September 22.

The lander and the rover went to sleep after the end of one lunar day (14 earth days).

On September 2, the Pragyan was put in sleep mode and two days later on September 4, the space agency put Vikram too in sleep mode with its payloads switched off. Both the Vikram’s and Pragyan’s receivers however have been kept on.

Now, on September 22, with sunlight back on the moon, ISRO is hoping that their solar panel would get charged and that it could establish contact with the two.

Also Read | What helped Vikram lander to soft-land on the moon 

Once the sun sets on the moon after the completion of one lunar day, temperature could plunge below minus 200°C.

“The temperature there goes down to -200 degrees [Celcius]. In such an environment, there is no guarantee that the battery, electronics will survive, but we did some tests and we get the feeling that they will survive even in such harsh conditions,” Mr. Somnath had said earlier.