Chandrayaan 3: 1st photo of Vikram lander taken by Pragyan, week after landing

Chandrayaan 3 sent the first photo of the Vikram lander clicked by Pragyan rover on Wednesday morning, a week after the successful soft-landing of the Moon Mission that took India to historic heights in space science. The image was taken by the navigation camera onboard the Pragyan rover. As shared by Isro, the image was taken at 7.35am on Wednesday (India time). In the image, Vikram lander can be seen parked on the moon. Two of its payloads ChaSTE and ILSA can be seen in the photo as pointed out by the space agency.

Earlier, Isro shared the photo of Vikram lander taken from the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter but then it was deleted. This is the first photo of the Vikram lander on the south pole of the moon. In the past week after the successful soft landing, Isro shared many photos of Pragyan rover rolling out of Vikram and then taking a stroll around. But this is the first time that Vikram lander can be soon stationary on the spot where it landed – also known as the Shiv Shakti Point.

What is Vikram lander?

Vikram is the lander of the Chandrayaan 3 which soft-landed on the south pole of the moon carrying Pragyan rover in its belly. After the landing, Chandrayaan 3 waited for the lunar dust to settle and then the Pragyan rover started its action. First, it rolled out of the lander and started taking a walk on the moon. In the last one week, Chandrayaan 3 shared many of its findings about the moon -- all of which are first of its kind as no spaceship before Chandrayaan 3 landed on the south pole of the moon.

Vikram lander has 4 payloads -- RAMBHA to measure the near surface plasma density, ChaSTE to measure the thermal properties of the soil, ILSA to measure the seismicity around the landing site and LRA to understand the dynamics of the lunar system.

What has Vikram lander been up to since landing?

Vikram lander sent photographs of the Pragyan rover, Its payload ChaSTE analysed the soil temperature of the moon and found a wide variation of temperature ranging from minus 10 degree celsius to 60-70 degree Celsius from minus 80 mm depth under the ground to 20 mm above the ground, respectively.

What has rover Pragyan been up to since landing?

Rover Pragyan rolled out of Vikram lander and started its experiments. It took a walk, changed its track seeing a crater in front of it, as prompted by Isro. Then Pragyan studied the elements available in the south pole of the moon and confirmed that there are sulphur, oxygen, aluminium, calcium etc. On Wednesday, Pragyan sent Vikram's image.