India’s rover still walking on moon

NEW DELHI — India’s lunar rover continued its walk on the moon Friday after the historic touchdown of India’s spacecraft near the moon’s south pole earlier this week, the country’s space agency said. The rover’s data collection and experiments could help determine whether there is oxygen and hydrogen on the moon.

The Chandrayaan-3 rover is expected to conduct experiments over 14 days, including an analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface, the Indian Space Research Organization has said.

“The rover has successfully traversed a distance of about [26.2 feet],” the agency said Friday. “All payloads on the propulsion module, lander module and rover are performing nominally.”

The rover will also study the atmosphere of the moon and seismic activities, said Indian Space Research Organization Chairman S. Somnath.

Pallava Bagla, a science writer and co-author of books on India’s space exploration, said the rover crawls, or moves at low speed, for safety reasons to minimize shock and damage to the vehicle on a rough surface and to negotiate obstacles. It also has limited battery power.

On Thursday, Somnath said the lander had touched down close to the center of the 2.8-mile-wide area that had been targeted for the landing. “It landed within [985 feet] of that point.”

After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India on Wednesday joined the United States, the Soviet Union and China as only the fourth country to achieve this milestone.

The successful mission showcases India’s rising standing as a technology and space powerhouse and dovetails with the image that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to project: an ascendant country asserting its place among the global elite.

The mission began more than a month ago at an estimated cost of $75 million. Somnath said that India would next attempt a manned lunar mission.

Many countries and private companies are interested in the moon’s South Pole region because its permanently shadowed craters may hold frozen water that could help future astronaut missions as a potential source of drinking water or to make rocket fuel.