“India has taken a walk on the moon,” the country’s space agency reported on its networks. The Pragyan, a six-wheeled robotic vehicle, one meter long and weighing about 30 kilos, descended the ramp deployed by the lander. Vikram and rolled a few meters across the surface of the satellite. It is the first time in history that a mobile vehicle moves through territory near the south pole of the Moon, which has become the new promised land of space exploration. He rover it began exploring the surface after charging its battery and conducting experiments, and prepared for new challenges, according to the head of the Indian space agency. So much Vikram like Pragyan are designed to run on batteries powered by solar energy.
Yesterday, after 20 minutes of “terror”, the mission Chandrayaan-3 managed to slow down its dizzying orbital speed of more than 6,000 kilometers per hour until it settled very slowly on the surface of the satellite. Everything was done automatically and without the possibility of correction from Earth. This is the first ship to reach this environment and India has become the fourth country to reach the Moon, after the United States, Soviet Russia and China. This impressive technological achievement establishes the Asian country as a space power capable of making history. The space chiefs of the United States and Europe celebrated yesterday the triumph of India, which prevailed over Russia in this new race to the Moon after the failure of the probe Moon-25.
The main objective of this mission, which only cost about 70 million euros, was to demonstrate a soft landing on the hostile South Pole of the Moon. But both the module Vikram Like the Pragyan rover, they carry instruments capable of analyzing the chemical composition of the terrain and carrying out key experiments to better understand the presence of water in this area of the Moon. The scientific work of this mission will also leave many open questions, due to the limitations of its instruments, as explained to EL PAÍS Santosh Vadawale, leader of one of the experiments of the Chandrayaan-3.
“The main scientific objectives are to understand the thermal and physical properties of the lunar surface at the landing site,” he details. “We also want to study the exosphere of the Moon, which will be done by the instruments on the lander, and understand the chemical properties of the surface around the landing site, which will be done by the instruments on the lander. rover. It should be noted that none of these instruments are designed to directly confirm the presence of water, nor is it expected that there will be water in the landing region,” he adds.
The spacecraft began operating shortly after the moon landing, when all the dust raised had settled. After checking that everything was working correctly, about four hours later, a ramp was deployed through which he finally descended. Pragyan —wisdom in Sanskrit—, which has autonomy to roll a few hundred meters around the landing point. It moves at a speed of one centimeter per second.
This rover It carries two scientific instruments on board to analyze the chemical composition of the soil. One of them fires a powerful beam of laser light to break down the compounds and detect up to 16 different elements, including oxygen and hydrogen that make up water.
The Chandrayaan-3 has landed at 70 degrees south latitude. The equivalent on Earth would be having reached an Antarctic base. Moon water will be essential for future inhabited colonies and will later serve as a resource for rocket fuel to travel to Mars and beyond, according to plans by the United States and its Western allies, including Europe.
India has approved a space plan that aims to encourage companies to participate in lunar exploration and exploitation of its resources. The country headed by Narendra Modi has also just signed the US-sponsored Artemis agreements that establish a common framework for lunar exploration and the use of its resources. This rapprochement of India to the United States and its partners is significant, since it leaves the other great giant in this space race: China, somewhat more isolated. “We can all aspire to reach the Moon and beyond,” President Modi, whose country recently became the most populous on Earth, ahead of China, said after the successful moon landing.
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