Chandrayaan-3's rover moved 100 m from lander, both to be put to "sleep" to withstand night: ISRO chief

The process of putting rover and lander into "sleep" to start in a day or two as they have to withstand the night: ISRO Chief. More details awaited.

Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh): Under the Chandrayaan-3 mission, the process of putting rover and lander into "sleep" will start in a day or two as they have to withstand the night, said ISRO Chief S. Somanath. Speaking after the launch of Aditya L1 here today, the chief of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the rover has moved 100 metres away from the lander so far.

Somanath further said that the lunar mission Chandrayaan 3's rover and lander are functioning well and they would be put to "sleep" soon to withstand the night on the Moon. The lander and rover, 'Vikram' and 'Pragyaan', respectively, were still functioning and "our team with scientific instruments are doing a lot of work now," he said.

"The good news is that the rover has moved almost 100 metres from the lander and we are going to start the process of making both of them sleep in the coming one or two days because they have to withstand the night," he said. The ISRO chief was addressing from the Mission Control Center here after the launch of India's maiden solar mission, Aditya L1, according to a PTI report.

India's first solar mission - Aditya-L1 - was launched at 11.50 am today with a live broadcast showing hundreds of spectators cheering wildly for yet another ambitious mission of ISRO.