ISRO sent the Vikram lander into hibernation mode at 8 am on Monday. The Indian Space Research Organization said that after sending data collected by its instruments to Earth, these too were shut down. However, the recipient of the land has been kept on.
Earlier, the rover Pragyan, which was sent with the lander in the Chandrayaan 3 mission, was also sent to sleep mode after being fully charged on September 2. Both are held nearby. When the solar energy runs out and the battery is completely discharged, they will go into deep sleep.
According to ISRO, earlier when Vikram changed the location of Hop-Test, its instruments CHASTE, Rambha LP and ILSA also conducted some more tests at the new location. Vikram has sent their data to Prithvi. One day on the moon is equal to 14 days on Earth. Now the night begins there, due to which solar energy is available in very less amount, keeping this in mind they have been sent to hibernation in time.
Must face minus 250 degree cold
According to ISRO, it is expected that on September 22, when the new Monday begins and both the rover and the lander start receiving solar energy, they can be reawakened. However, the already difficult conditions at the Moon’s south pole become worse at night. They must withstand radiation from minus 180 to 250 degrees Celsius. After this, the chances of these machines being able to function again are small.
Working in the cold was risky so it was stopped in time.
According to ISRO scientists, after landing on August 23, Vikram and Pragyan had successfully completed all the tests. Due to the sharp drop in temperature during the night, the equipment could have suffered major damage if it had been used further. For this reason, they have been closed in time. Now they will be started again only when the temperature rises. After 18 days, if the equipment starts working again, various tests can be performed again.
According to ISRO sources, if the strategy of shutting down and restarting Vikram and Pragyan every 10 to 14 days is successful, it can be repeated many times. Because of this, the mission can be used for a much longer time than the fixed lifetime of 14 days.
