India’s lunar rover goes down a ramp to the moon’s surface and takes a walk
NEW DELHI — A lunar rover slid down a ramp from the lander of India’s spacecraft within hours of its historic touch-down near the moon’s south pole, Indian space officials said Thursday, as the country celebrated its new scientific accomplishment.
“India took a walk on the moon,” the state-run Indian Space Research Organization said, adding that the Chandrayan- 3 Rover would conduct experiments over 14 days, including an analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface.
Residents of the world’s most populous country had crowded around televisions in offices, shops, and restaurants on Wednesday and erupted into clapping, dancing, and exchanging of sweets when they saw the lander’s smooth touchdown.
It landed on uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water.
“India Goes Where No Nation’s Gone Before,’’ read Thursday’s headline in The Times of India daily, while the Indian Express newspaper exclaimed, “The moon is Indian.”
Ajay Bhargava, a New Delhibased architect, said it was a great experience watching broadcasts of the landing, and that he felt it was the culmination of hard work by India’s scientists over the years.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi or any other politician should not take credit for this achievement,” Mr. Bhargava said in a telephone interview.
Indian Space Research Organization Chairman S. 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 300 meters (985 feet) of that point,” the Press Trust of India cited him as saying.
The rover was on the move, and working “very well,” Mr. Somnath said.