As Lunar Night Approaches, Vikram Lander & Pragyan Rover Will be Put to Sleep Soon

New Delhi: As an extremely cold lunar night is approaching, Chandrayaan-3’s moon lander Vikram and Pragyan rover Pragyan will be put to sleep in a couple of days time, informed S Somanath, Chairman of ISRO on Saturday.

After the successful placing of the Aditya-L1 spacecraft in the intended intermediate orbit by the PSLV rocket, Somanath said the Pragyan rover has traveled to a distance of around 100 metres from the lander.

According to him, the process of putting the rover and the lander to sleep will begin in one or two days because of the approaching extreme cold night on moon.

Vikram lander had a soft landing near the moon’s South Pole on August 23. Later the rover rolled down and started doing experiments.

According to ISRO, the rover has found the presence of oxygen, aluminium, sulphur and other materials near the lunar South Pole. The presence of hydrogen is being searched for.