Chandrayaan-3: Day after perfect touchdown, ISRO looks beyond the moon

A day after India successfully landed its third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, near the South Pole of the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief S Somanath told agencies on Thursday here that a team will soon start working on a robotic path planning exercise, which will be the key to future explorations into deep space.

Speaking on the 'Pragyan' rover, which rolled out of the lander after the successful touchdown on the lunar southside, Somanath told agencies, "Pragyan rover has two instruments, both of which are related to the elemental composition findings on the moon as well as its chemical compositions. It will also rove the lunar surface. We will also do a robotic path planning exercise, which is important for future explorations into deep space". The 'Pragyaan' rover on Thursday morning rolled out of the landing module to begin its exploration of the uncharted lunar south face, Isro informed on its official handle on X, formerly Twitter.

"The Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander and India took a walk on the Moon. More updates soon," Isro posted on X.


The first picture of the six-wheeled robotic vehicle Pragyan rolling out of Vikram was shared by Pawan K Goenka, the chairman of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), a single-window, independent nodal agency that functions as an autonomous agency in the department of space. Later in the evening, Isro posted on X that "All activities are on schedule. All systems are normal. Lander module payloads ILSA, RAMBHA and ChaSTE have been turned on today. Rover mobility operations have commenced. SHAPE payload on the propulsion module was turned on, on Sunday". ILSA (Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity) will measure seismicity around landing site and delineate the structure of the lunar crust and mantle.