The day Chandrayaan-3 landed on the moon on August 23 was the first of 14 Earth days of sunlight on the moon and night will fall over the moon on September 6 when the batteries of the Lander and Rover will not be charged for 14 (Earth) days.
Hoping to extend the life of the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday said it had put Pragyan rover in an hibernation mode as the daylight time on Moon is coming to an end.
ISRO said in a tweet that – The Rover completed its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into Sleep mode. APXS and LIBS payloads are turned off. Data from these payloads is transmitted to the Earth via the Lander,
The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate only for one Lunar day, which is equivalent to nearly 14 days on Earth. That is because the electronics are not designed to withstand very low temperatures, less than -120 degrees Celsius, during the nighttime on the Moon. The nighttime too extends for as long as 14 days on Earth. But there is a possibility that the electronics are able to survive the low temperatures and are able to power themselves again once the sunshine is available. In fact, this happened on one of the Chinese lander missions a few years ago.
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