'Fairly good chance': Ex-Isro chief on Vikram lander and Pragyan waking up

Chandrayaan-3: Isro is gearing up to wake the Vikram lander and Pragyan from 'sleep mode' to face the sun's rays after they were put into deep sleep having completed their set tasks

There is a fairly good chance that Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover will be operational again despite the extremely cold temperature on the moon's surface, former Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Chairman Madhavan Nair said on Friday.

"Vikram lander and Pragyan rover have been in deep sleep for almost two weeks now. It is almost like taking out something from the freezer and then trying to use it. The temperatures would have gone beyond -150 degrees Celsius," Nair told news agency ANI.

India's space research agency is gearing up to wake the Vikram lander and Pragyan from "sleep mode" to face the sun's rays after having completed their set tasks. The Vikram lander of the Chandrayaan-3 mission touched down near the south pole of the moon on August 23 in a historic landing.

"At that temperature how the batteries, the electronics and the mechanism survived is really a concern. Of course, adequate tests have been done on the ground to establish that they will work even after such conditions. But still, we have to keep our fingers crossed," Nair said.

He further said, "The solar heat will warm up the instruments and also recharge the batteries. If both these conditions are successfully met, there is a fairly good chance that the system will be operational again."

Meanwhile, Isro scientist Tapan Mishra said that if the lander survives one night, then it will survive many more lunar nights. He added that even if the rover fails to revive and the lander works, it will be a miracle.

"Originally, the Chandrayaan lander and rover were designed for only 14 days of operation. It is expected that the temperature will go down to -140 degrees Celsius or lower; in the southern pole, it can reach down to -200 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, no plastic material, no carbon power material, nor any electronics can survive. They will crack. But I'm hopeful that Isro must have done a lot of thermal management things," Mishra told ANI.

He further said, "If they are successful in thermal management, if Isro's design becomes successful, then tomorrow when the lunar daytime starts, all payloads in the lander and the rover may start working. Even if the rover doesn't work and the lander works, it will really be a miracle."

Nair asserted that if the lander and rover activate successfully, they will help collect more data from the lunar surface.

"Once they come into operation, it is quite possible that we can move around for some distance over the next 14 days and collect adequate data, more data on the surface conditions on the moon near the South Pole," he said.

(With agency inputs)