NASA spacecraft spots Chandrayaan-3 lander on lunar surface

As the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) shared a 3D image of the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s Vikram lander taken by the Pragyaan rover, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shared an image of the lander from a “bird’s eye view,” if there were any birds on the Moon.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) took an image of the Chandrayaan-3 landing site on the Moon’s surface. LRO is a robotic NASA spacecraft that is currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar orbit.

Data from the spacecraft plays an important role in helping the American space agency plan human and robotic missions to the Moon, including missions of the Artemis program which will return mankind to the Moon.

The LRO Camera took a 42-degree slew angle “oblique view” of the lander four days after it touched down on August 23. 

The landing site is about 600 kilometres from the lunar south pole. In the NASA image, a bright halo can be seen.

This was caused by the rocket plume interacting with the fine-grained regolith.

ISRO said on September 3 that it put the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover in hibernation mode since daylight time was ending on the Moon.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission was only designed to operate on the lunar surface for about one lunar day or roughly 14 days on Earth.