As Chandrayaan-3 makes historic moon landing, know the next steps of the ISRO mission

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Chandrayaan-3 lander made history on Wednesday as it effected a successful touchdown near the South Pole of the Moon, With this mission, India also became the fourth nation in the world to touch down on the lunar surface, after the US, Russia, and China. But notably, India has become the first country to land near the lunar South Pole. The world's eyes were on India, especially after the failure of Russia's Luna-25 just days before, and it did not disappoint as the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander touched down on the Moon's surface at 6:04 PM IST.

After this historic achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X, “Chandrayaan-3's triumph mirrors the aspirations and capabilities of 140 crore Indians. To new horizons and beyond! Proud moment for….”

ISRO later shared an update on X, mentioning that a “communication link is established between the Ch-3 Lander and MOX-ISTRAC, Bengaluru.” The Indian Space Agency also published images captured by the Vikram lander's Horizontal Velocity Camera.

Now, that the Vikram lander has touched down on the lunar soil, know what's next for ISRO's Moon mission.

Propulsion module - Chandrayaan-3's propulsion module, which separated from the lander on August 17, continues in its orbit around the Moon, and will carry out a series of experiments over the next few months and even years. Astonishingly, it has over 150kg of fuel left which has boosted its lifespan to several years from the initial estimation of three to six months.

It is equipped with the Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload which will conduct experiments such as measurements of variations in polarization from clouds on Earth, a spectroscopic analysis of Earth's atmosphere, and collect exoplanet signatures