NEW DELHI: With the lander and the rover of India’s third Moon mission yet to wake up in the lunar south pole after the Sun rises again on the Moon at the end of the lunar night (equivalent of 14 Earth days), former Isro chairman K Sivan said “it is not the end of the story for Chandrayaan-3 mission as a lot of data is left to be processed”.
Speaking to TOI, Sivan, who led the Chandrayaan-2 mission as chairman and also shared his expertise for the Chandrayaan-3 mission, said, “The design life of Vikram lander and Pragyan rover is practically over as they have completed all their mission tasks during the 14 Earth days. However, Isro is trying to establish contact with the lander and rover after the Sun rises there on the Moon. They (scientists) will keep trying it.”
On data from Chandrayaan-3, the former Isro chief said, “These are precious data. The analysis of the data whatever we got from Vikram lander and Pragyan rover is not over yet. Scientists will certainly find new science from this data. Recently, TOIreported that scientists from a US university studying the Chandrayaan-1 data found that high-energy electrons in Earth’s plasma sheet were contributing to weathering processes on the Moon’s surface and electrons may have aided the formation of water on the lunar surface. If we are still finding new science from Chandrayaan-1 data, I am sure there is a lot to be dug out from the vast amount of data that we recovered from payloads on board Pragyan and Vikram.”
A day before, Isro on Friday tweeted, “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.” “Whatever data has been received from Chandrayaan-3 payloads will be made public. Nothing will be a secret,” he said.
A senior source in Isro told TOIthat establishing contact with the lander and rover is “automatic” and can’t be nudged from the Earth. “It is only when the signals from the lander-rover will come that Isro can do something”, the source said.
The source told TOIthat there could be some “connectivity problem in circuits” of the lander-rover due to the freezing temperatures in the south pole because of which we are not able to re-establish contact. Though Isro is still trying it, the “hope of re-establishing link looks bleak”. However, the mission life of the lander and rover was 14 Earth days and that is over, the source said.
Sivan said Isro’s ‘hop-up experiment’ just before the start of the lunar night “was a good experiment. This procedure was useful as it showed that we could take off from the Moon for the return mission.”
Speaking to TOI, Sivan, who led the Chandrayaan-2 mission as chairman and also shared his expertise for the Chandrayaan-3 mission, said, “The design life of Vikram lander and Pragyan rover is practically over as they have completed all their mission tasks during the 14 Earth days. However, Isro is trying to establish contact with the lander and rover after the Sun rises there on the Moon. They (scientists) will keep trying it.”
On data from Chandrayaan-3, the former Isro chief said, “These are precious data. The analysis of the data whatever we got from Vikram lander and Pragyan rover is not over yet. Scientists will certainly find new science from this data. Recently, TOIreported that scientists from a US university studying the Chandrayaan-1 data found that high-energy electrons in Earth’s plasma sheet were contributing to weathering processes on the Moon’s surface and electrons may have aided the formation of water on the lunar surface. If we are still finding new science from Chandrayaan-1 data, I am sure there is a lot to be dug out from the vast amount of data that we recovered from payloads on board Pragyan and Vikram.”
A day before, Isro on Friday tweeted, “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.” “Whatever data has been received from Chandrayaan-3 payloads will be made public. Nothing will be a secret,” he said.
A senior source in Isro told TOIthat establishing contact with the lander and rover is “automatic” and can’t be nudged from the Earth. “It is only when the signals from the lander-rover will come that Isro can do something”, the source said.
The source told TOIthat there could be some “connectivity problem in circuits” of the lander-rover due to the freezing temperatures in the south pole because of which we are not able to re-establish contact. Though Isro is still trying it, the “hope of re-establishing link looks bleak”. However, the mission life of the lander and rover was 14 Earth days and that is over, the source said.
Sivan said Isro’s ‘hop-up experiment’ just before the start of the lunar night “was a good experiment. This procedure was useful as it showed that we could take off from the Moon for the return mission.”
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