Chandrayaan-3 probes on the lunar night. Will the robotic duo survive the lunar temperatures?

Chandrayaan-3 created history by successfully landing on the moon. The historic move placed India into the category of countries that have landed a spacecraft safely on the lunar surface. However, after celebrating the success of the landing, it is also important to know what happened to the mission.

At present, the Chandrayaan-3 is put to sleep. This is done to withstand the 14-day lunar night, after which the mission controls will reawaken the spacecraft. However, whether the spacecraft will get reawakened or not is what is keeping ISRO's fingers crossed.

Goals of the mission

The basic goals have been checked off from the list. For approximately two weeks, technology demonstrations have been carried out by the lander. The focus for collecting data was on studying the moon's soil, and its composition, along the extremely thin atmosphere of the moon.

It was on August 23 that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully landed on the surface of the moon. This safe landing made India the fourth such nation in the entire world to achieve victory in such a feat. Earlier, China, the United States, and the Soviet Union were the countries that made such attempts. However, only China and India have been able to successfully land on the moon.

ALSO READ: List of All Scientists Behind the Historic Chandrayaan-3 Mission Success

Temperatures on the moon- Why are situations difficult for the rover and the lander?

Temperatures surrounding the poles of the moon can fall to as low as -424°F, which is 20 K or -253°C. Neither the rover Pragyan nor the lander Vikram, however, are equipped with heaters. These heaters are actually otherwise common for missions to the moon.

Such heaters are radioisotope heater units (RHUs). These passively radiate heat that keeps the hardware onboard spacecraft at temperatures that support sustainable operation. Usually, RHUs are made to be used in space missions, as they transform heat into electrical power from heat that emerged from the natural decay of radioactive versions of polonium. Ultimately, this procedure heats spacecraft hardware, which is mostly sufficient to aid in surviving extremely cold temperatures.

However, since there aren't any such power systems, the question is whether Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan and Vikram hold a chance of survival on the moon or not.

The chances of survival

Ever since the 1970s, RHUs have been made for use in moon landing missions. ISRO has not yet expressed as to why it did not make use of such radioisotope heaters for Pragyan rover and Vikram lander. However, the robotic due successfully checked off some goals in the area of the moon that has actually become a spot for space exploration. This has been done with the help of frozen water reservoirs. In fact, the duo was the very first one to make a successful landing there.

The lander also hopped on the surface of the moon, which actually exceeded the objectives of the mission. The batteries onboard the rover were completely charged prior to putting it to sleep, to prepare the robotic duo for the very first lunar night, as stated by ISRO on X (formerly Twitter).

ALSO READ: What Are the Scientific Instruments Used In Chandrayaan-3?

ALSO READ: How much ISRO has spent on Chandrayaan 3 India Lunar Mission? Check Cost Here