Chandrayaan-3's Rover and Lander were put in sleep mode for the lunar night, which is equal to around 14 days on Earth

New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been trying to restore communication with Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover after the two were put to sleep earlier this month.

ISRO, on September 2, announced in a post on X ( formerly Twitter) that the Pragyan rover had completed all its assignment on the Moon and was now “parked safely and set into sleep mode”.

“APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander. Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is kept on,” the space agency said.



What Happens If Chandrayaan-3 Rover, Lander Don't Wake Up?

At the time of putting the lander and rover to sleep, the ISRO had said that if the two don't wake up, they will “forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador”.

“Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments! Else, it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador,” wrote the space agency.

On September 22, when the lunar sunrise was expected, the ISRO shared it tried to establish contact with the rover and lander, but in vain.

“Efforts have been made to establish communication with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to ascertain their wake-up condition. As of now, no signals have been received from them. Efforts to establish contact will continue,” the ISRO said in a post on X.


Experts are hoping that the rover and lander might wake up with the crack of dawn citing examples of China's lunar lander Chang'e-4 and rover Yutu-2 that had started operating again after surviving their first lunar night in 2019.

However, former ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar told BBC that it is not necessary that the Chandrayaan-3's lander and rover wake up as temperature plummets to as low as -200 to -250 degree Celsius during night on the Moon and batteries are not designed to be stored or operate at such extreme temperatures.

Former ISRO scientist Tapan Mishra said that the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover were originally designed to operate for only 14 days.

He said if they survive the first lunar night then they will be able to make it through more nights. “If it survives one lunar night, I'm sure it will survive many more lunar nights and it may probably operate from 6 months to one year. That will be a great thing,” Mr Mishra said.

What's Next If The Lander And Rover Wake Up?

If ISRO is able to revive the lander and the rover, the information that is derived from experiments that could once again be conducted by the Chandrayaan-3 payloads would be a "bonus". Former ISRO scientist Tapan Mishra said that confirming the presence of water would be the next important thing.

“There was a lesser induced spectroscopy instrument. It has shown us all the expected metals there. It has also shown us the presence of oxygen there, but we are looking for water. The oxygen can come from the breaking of any other silicon material which is actually the basis of all the rocks anywhere in the universe, also it can come from the breaking up of water. But if we could detect hydrogen there, detecting the presence of hydrogen would conclusively prove that there is water because hydrogen is never part of any other compound. So in that case we will be able to conclusively prove that there is water there. We have remote sensing-wise shown the presence of water. Now physically also we will able to show," he had told ANI.

Major Challenge For Vikram And Pragyan?

The major challenge for ‘Vikram and Pragyan’ would be to come back in action after surviving the chilling -200 degree Celsius of temperature. If the onboard instruments survive the low temperature on the Moon, the modules can come back to life and continue their mission to send information from the moon for next fourteen days.