Chandrayaan-3: Pragyan rover encounters 4m crater on Moon, sent on safe path

While crawling on the Moon’s surface, Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan rover came across a huge crater with a diameter of four metres on August 27, 2023.

This crater was three metres ahead of Pragyan’s previous location. After a command to retrace its path, Pragyan is now heading safely on a new path, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a mission update on August 28.

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

On August 27, 2023, the Rover came across a 4-meter diameter crater positioned 3 meters ahead of its location.
The Rover was commanded to retrace the path.

It’s now safely heading on a new path.#Chandrayaan_3#Ch3 pic.twitter.com/QfOmqDYvSF

— ISRO (@isro) August 28, 2023

The Navigation Camera onboard the Pragyan rover has captured an image of the four-metre crater on the Moon.

The camera has also captured an image of the path retraced by the Pragyan rover on August 27

The Pragyan rover rolled out of the Vikram lander on August 23, about four hours after Chandrayaan-3 made a historic touchdown on the lunar south pole. Chandrayaan-3 softly landed on the Moon’s south pole on August 23, at 6:02 pm IST, making India the first country to softly land a spacecraft on the lunar south pole.