Chandrayaan 3’s Pragyan rover is now on the lunar surface: what is it and what will it do?

Minutes after India’s Vikram lander made a historic touchdown at the moon’s south pole, the next phase of the Chandrayaan 3 mission began as the Pragyan rover rolled out onto the unexplored region of the Earth’s nearest neighbor.

With the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover on the moon’s surface, India became the fourth country after the US, Russia, and China to have achieved the milestone. It also became the first nation to land on the moon’s south pole.

As part of its life’s purpose, the Pragyan rover will roam around on the lunar surface to acquire essential data.

What’s in store for Pragyan over its small lifespan of one lunar day, or 14 Earth days, let’s find out:

What is Pragyan rover:

The six-wheeled robotic Pragyan rover takes its name from Sanskrit, which means wisdom. The rover, which weighs 26 kg, is designed to collect information about the moon’s surface and carry out a series of experiments to analyze the elements that make up the atmosphere.

As per NASA, the Pragyan rover has a rectangular chassis, 91.7 x 75.0 x 39.7 cm in size. The rover is equipped with navigation cameras and a solar panel that can generate 50 W.

Using transmitter and receiver antennas, the rover can communicate directly with the lander.

What will it do:

While the Vikram lander is expected to collect data on the lunar environment, including its temperature features and seismic activity, the Pragyan rover will be doing a lot more than that.

The rover carries two payloads: the APXS, or “Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer,” and the LIBS, or “Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope”.

The purpose of LIBS is to conduct tests to ascertain the elemental composition of chemical elements in lunar soil and rocks near the landing site. The APXS on the other hand will determine the elemental composition of the lunar surface.

The rover will also aim to achieve some goals that fall beyond its scientific milestones.

If a video by ISRO is to be believed the wheels of the Pragyan rover have been imprinted with the ISRO logo and the national emblem, the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath. However, there’s no official statement to confirm the veracity of media reports on this.