Pragyan Rover on Moon - The 1st Week: Clicks first picture of Vikram Lander, finds Sulphur, more

tech.hindustantimes.com:

On August 23, the Chandrayaan-3 mission, India's second attempt at landing on the Moon, was deemed successful after both Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover were able to touchdown on the south pole of the Moon. With this, India also became the fourth nation to land on Moon, and the first country to reach its south pole. Just a few hours after the landing, the Pragyan rover made its way out of the lander and has been trundling across the region, exploring and conducting various experiments to understand it better. Most recently, the Pragyan rover has found Sulphur on the Moon, and it took the first-ever image of Vikram Lander as it sits on the lunar soil. Let us take a look at what Pragyan rover and Vikram Lander have done ever since landing there.

The south pole of the Moon is a special zone. This is the first time a mission has reached there and is conducting experiments. That means any new discovery will be historic and groundbreaking for the astronomy community. The first day after moving down the ramp, Pragyan had to undergo a series of tests to ensure that it was working properly and that it could be controlled remotely. Then began the investigation.

The first report came from Vikram Lander which found that the temperature on the surface of the Moon was much higher than what was previously expected. As per Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) payload, the surface temperature of the Moon in the polar region is around 70 degrees centigrade, whereas scientists had believed it to be somewhere around 20-30 degrees.

Yesterday, a significant milestone was reached when the official X account of ISRO revealed that Pragyan was conducting an in-situ experiment. The post said, “Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope