Chandrayaan-3
Made India the fourth nation to soft-land on the Moon and the first to land near the lunar south pole. The Vikram lander and Pragyan rover operated for one lunar day, detecting sulfur and other elements in the south polar soil.
History
Chandrayaan-3 launched on July 14, 2023, after the partial failure of Chandrayaan-2 in 2019, whose lander crashed during descent. ISRO extensively redesigned the landing sequence, adding redundancy and failure tolerance to ensure the Vikram lander could handle anomalies during its final approach.
On August 23, 2023, Vikram touched down near the Moon''s south pole at approximately 69 degrees south latitude, closer to the pole than any previous lunar landing. The achievement made India the fourth nation to soft-land on the Moon, after the Soviet Union, the United States, and China. It came just days after Russia''s Luna 25, which had been targeting a similar south polar landing site, crashed on the lunar surface.
The Pragyan rover, a 57-pound solar-powered vehicle, rolled off the lander and explored the surrounding terrain for one lunar day (approximately 14 Earth days). Its instruments detected sulfur, aluminum, calcium, iron, and other elements in the lunar soil, providing the first in-situ chemical analysis of the south polar region. Both the lander and rover were put into hibernation at lunar sunset but did not revive for the next lunar day, as expected.
