Indian lunar lander Vikram has successfully landed near the lunar south pole. As reported by the Indian space agency ISRO, the probe is functional and will soon send the first images of the surface. The lander also carried the lunar rover Pragyan, which began its first trip to the surface about three hours after landing. The mission, collectively called Chandrayaan-3, is the successor to the Chandrayaan-2 mission, whose lander was lost on September 6, 2019 due to a software error.
According to ISRO, the descent to the lunar surface went as planned, but the probe had to move to another landing site because the ground at the planned landing site was too uneven. Therefore, it swerved fully automatically to another nearby, flatter location. The probe will only be active for about 14 days, then succumb to the darkness and cold of the lunar night. In the meantime, it should take a series of measures. It carries the ChaSTE instrument, which measures thermal conductivity and surface temperature, as well as a seismometer and a plasma sensor.
The Pragyan lunar rover carries an X-ray spectrometer intended to determine the composition of surface rocks, as well as another spectroscope that determines the proportions of individual elements. The real objective of the mission, however, is to test the technical components and the lander and to demonstrate that the Indian Chandrayaan program is really capable of landing a probe. So far, only the United States, the Soviet Union and China have achieved this. Of a total of 53 attempts to land on the Moon, 30 failed.
