Unconditional Bond

                                        Historic moment 

                                                                    CHANDRAYAN 3

Image permanently imprinted on the surface of Moon today onward as Tyres of rover has this imprint, as there is no air on moon hence these marks will be forever.

 

Why was this day chosen?

Why was this time chosen?

29.5 earth days = 1 moon day

This lunar day gets split almost equally into daytime and nighttime the poles of the moon.

 Hence there are 14.75 Earth days of daylight on the moon in one continuous sequence.

 Factoring for very weak twilight conditions during lunar sunrise and sunset, we are left with approximately 14 days of practical work time. 

Now, the next question in one's mind might be, why only daytime? Can't we also work through lunar nights?

The answer is no, at least not during this mission. This is because the rover will freeze and die during the night. The temperature during lunar nights at the poles goes down to as low as -208° Celsius at some places. 

Our Pragyan rover is only 26 kg in weight on Earth and about 4.3 kg on the moon. It only carries essential instruments but does not have any support system for hibernating through the lunar night. Perhaps our next mission will take care of this. 

Hence, August 23rd, 1804 hrs. the landing date & time have been carefully chosen to coincide with the sunrise at the lunar South Pole. It gives us a maximum of 14 days to play around.