Chandrayaan-3

찬드라얀 3호

In 2023 India made the first landing near the Moon’s south pole. The small rover Pragyan rolled out of the lander Vikram, its wheels carrying India’s emblem — though the prints in the soil came out fainter than hoped.

See it on the 3D Moon →

At a glance

Where: Near the south pole
📅 Landed: 2023-08-23
🚀 Sent by: ISRO (India)
🛞 Rover: Pragyan
Coordinates: 69.37°S 32.32°E
Kind: Landing sites

Chandrayaan-3 is the Indian Space Research Organisation's Moon mission that made the first landing near the Moon's south pole. On 23 August 2023 its lander, Vikram, touched down at about 69 degrees south. India became the fourth country to make a soft landing on the Moon, after the Soviet Union, the United States and China. The landing spot was named Shiv Shakti Point. It reached that spot after a journey of about six weeks.

Soon after landing, a small rover called Pragyan rolled down a ramp from Vikram. Vikram and Pragyan were built to work for one lunar day, about 14 Earth days, using sunlight for power. During that short time they measured the soil, the temperature and even tiny moonquakes. India now celebrates 23 August as National Space Day.

The mission

Chandrayaan-3 launched on 14 July 2023 on an LVM3 rocket from Sriharikota in southern India. It was a follow-on to the earlier Chandrayaan-2 mission, and its main job was to prove that India could land safely and drive a rover. A propulsion module carried Vikram and Pragyan into a 100 km orbit around the Moon. Vikram then descended on its own and landed gently on 23 August, with Pragyan tucked inside.

What the rover found

Pragyan weighs about 26 kg and drove about 100 m. Its laser instrument zapped the soil and read the light that came off, and it confirmed sulfur near the south pole, the first such measurement made right on the surface there. Near the end of the mission Vikram fired its engines and hopped about 40 cm up, landing about half a metre away, to test skills needed for bringing samples home one day.

The wheel emblems

Pragyan's rear wheels carry raised shapes of India's national emblem and the ISRO logo, meant to press marks into the soil as it drove. In tests on Earth the shapes printed clearly. On the Moon, however, the rover's tracks did not show clear prints. One scientist suggested the soil near the landing site may differ from the test soil, and that the light lunar gravity, which makes the rover weigh under 5 kg there, may also matter.

Fun facts

Pragyan's laser confirmed sulfur near the south pole, measured right on the surface for the first time.
Vikram did a small hop on the Moon, rising about 40 cm before landing again.
Pragyan weighs about 26 kg on Earth but less than 5 kg on the Moon.
India celebrates the landing day, 23 August, as National Space Day.