ISRO Project Director P Veeramuthuvel revealed that the Vikram lander’s hop experiment was unplanned and it exceeded Chandrayaan-3 mission objectives

India has achieved a great milestone by accomplishing its Chandrayaan-3 mission successfully. People from all over the world are still keeping an eye on the Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover, even though they have accomplished all its objectives successfully. With this mission, various discoveries were made by ISRO. That is why Chandrayaan-3 has been in the news constantly since the day of its launch.

In a surprising turn of events, the Chandrayaan-3 mission achieved an unexpected milestone when the Vikram lander performed a hop experiment on the Moon's surface. In an interview with India Today, Project Director P Veeramuthuvel revealed that this experiment was totally unplanned and it exceeded the mission's objectives.

Chandrayaan-3, a mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), was initially designed to study various aspects of the lunar environment. The Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover conducted a series of experiments over 14 Earth days, providing a wealth of valuable data. However, as lunar night approached, the fate of the lander and rover remained uncertain.

Vikram Lander's Hop Experiment

During the unplanned hop experiment, the Vikram lander fired its engines as commanded, lifting itself approximately 40 centimetres above the lunar surface. It then safely landed about 30 to 40 centimetres away from its original location at Shiv Shakti Point. This successful manoeuvre demonstrated the Chandrayaan-3's capability to take off from the Moon's surface, paving the way for future missions that could potentially return lunar samples to India. The unexpected success of this manoeuvre has opened up exciting possibilities for future lunar exploration endeavours, including sample return missions and even human missions to the Moon. It showcases India's growing prowess in space exploration and its potential contributions to international lunar research.

Despite multiple attempts by ISRO to reestablish contact with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover during the lunar night, no response has been received from the Pragyan rover and Vikram lander.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission had already made history by achieving a successful landing near the Moon's south polar region on August 23, 2023, making India the first country to achieve this feat. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured an image of the Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module's landing site on the Moon's surface. The image was taken four days after the landing.

This mission marked a significant milestone in India's space exploration journey and garnered international attention.