[ad_1]
The image was taken by the Navigation Camera onboard the rover, Isro said.
“Pragyan Rover clicked an image of Vikram Lander this morning. The ‘image of the mission’ was taken by the Navigation Camera onboard the Rover (NavCam). NavCams for the Chandrayaan-3 Mission are developed by the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS),” Isro said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover have completed about half their designed life on the lunar surface, sending in scientific data everyday in the past week. While the two are designed to last one lunar day (14 Earth days), when the sun shines, there are mechanisms to spring them back to life when the sun rises again after the long night.
Both Vikram and Pragyan are solar-powered and are designed only to operate during sunlit periods, when the temperatures (in the polar area) are upwards of 54° Celsius.
On August 27, Pragyan rover came across a 4-metre diameter crater positioned 3 metres ahead of its location, causing it to change its path.
TOI had earlier reported that rover operations on the Moon are semi-autonomous and ground stations need to uplink commands for its mobility.
For every path planning, the rover’s onboard navigation camera data is downloaded to ground for generation of a digital elevation model (DEM), then the ground and mechanisms teams will decide which path to take and uplink the command for the rover to follow.
On August 27, a similar operation was carried out to ensure that the rover avoids the new crater.
[ad_2]
Source link
