ISRO Reveals Pragyan Rover Encounters Craters On Lunar Surface

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Monday said that the Chandrayaan-3 mission's Pragyan Rover came across a four-metre diameter crater just ahead of its location on the lunar surface before it was commanded to retrace its path. However, it is now safely heading on a new path.

The ISRO took to platform X, formerly Twitter to say the rover had spotted the crater a safe three metres from the edge and had been directed to a safer path.

Reportedly, the first crater was the small one, however, the second one was bigger. But ISRO has been successful in directing the rover to overcome these craters.

Nilesh M. Desai, Director, Space Applications Centre (SAC) on Sunday asserted that the moon mission had three main objectives: soft landing on the lunar surface, movement of the Pragyan rover, and obtaining science data via payloads, attached to the rover and lander Vikram.

"Our two main objectives have been accomplished successfully, but our third objective is underway," the scientist was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, India's pioneering space-based solar mission, Aditya-L1, is set for launch on September 2, 2023, from Sriharikota, as declared by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday. The mission, spanning five years, aims to investigate the Sun's phenomena. It will be deployed atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at 11:50 am IST from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

Aditya-L1 spacecraft is designed to remotely examine the solar corona and acquire in situ data of the solar wind at L1, the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point, located around 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. This will mark India's maiden dedicated space mission for solar observation, overseen by the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency.