BENGALURU: Chandrayaan 3’s Pragyaan rover on Wednesday morning clicked the first photograph of Vikram Lander after it landed near the Moon’s south pole on August 23.
Sharing the image with the caption “Smile Please”, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) took to ‘X’ saying: “Pragyaan Rover clicked an image of Vikram Lander this morning. The ‘image of the mission’ was taken by the Navigation Camera onboard the Rover (NavCam).” The NavCam is processed by Space Application Centre (SAC)/ISRO in Ahmedabad. Pragyaan took the photograph at 11 am from a distance of 15 metres from the lander, an ISRO scientist said.
Explaining why the photograph of Vikram taking a picture of Pragyaan and visa versa at the same time was not done, the scientists said Vikram took a photograph of Pragyaan when it was coming out of the lander. The cameras are fitted in front of the rover, just like cars having headlights. So during the operations, Pragyaan turned around and took the lander’s photograph in which its Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) and Chandra’s Surface Thermo-physical Experiment (CHAste) can also be seen. Some more photographs are expected in the coming days.
The scientists said the task for them has become more challenging as the Chandrayaan 3 team is associated with Aditya L1 to be launched on September 2 from Sriharikota at 11.50 am. The same team is also working on other projects.