India's Chandrayaan-3: ISRO makes efforts to communicate with lander, rover; finds no signal

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has made efforts to establish communication with the Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to ascertain their wake-up condition, but as of now, no signals have been received. However, ISRO said it would continue efforts to establish contact.

"Efforts have been made to establish communication with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to ascertain their wake-up condition. As of now, no signals have been received from them. Efforts to establish contact will continue," said ISRO in a statement posted on 'X'.

Earlier, a Bhubaneswar-based space scientist Suvendu Patnayak explained: “The Chandrayaan-3 landed successfully and it worked for almost 14 days. It was designed to work for 14 days (on the moon). Its life period was only 14 days because the moon's temperature falls down to -250 degrees during the (lunar) night time. So it worked during the sun hours or daytime and during that, it had already given all the data (it was supposed to).”

Patnayak recently superannuated as the deputy director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium in Bhubaneswar.

“It is very difficult for few electronic components to work in such a huge range of temperature. So it was expected it would not work after 14 days… But a few scientists are very hopeful that it may work again. So if it works again, it will be a boon for us and we will perform the same experiments again and again,” Patnayak added.