ISRO Chief hopes that Vikram and Pragyan will be active once again. He told, ‘No signal has been received yet but I cannot say that signal will not be received in future also. We can wait for one full lunar day (14 Earth days) because during this period there will be continuous sunlight reaching there which means the temperature will keep increasing.
S. Somnath said, ‘If the temperature increases, the systems of Pragyan and Vikram will also get heated from inside. Due to this the system can wake up even on the 14th day. But there is no way to predict when this will happen.
ISRO Chief said that if lander Vikram and rover Pragyan become active again, it will have many benefits. The biggest benefit will be that he will start studying there again.
He said, ‘We have found zeta from many of the experiments we have done, but they may change with time. For example, ChaSTE (Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment) can be placed at a new location. If we land the lander there by bouncing it again a little, then we will get data of another location which is good. The reason for this is that continuously receiving data from the same location will not give the real picture about the surface there. If we find multiple locations, we will get better information about the moon’s surface and its characteristics.
He said that different locations will benefit RAMBHA as well as other instruments as they will get data from different places at different times. The instruments on board Pragyan have already conducted experiments at different locations but it will be even better if there are more locations.
Whether lander Vikram and rover Pragyan start the second innings on the moon or not, it will not make any difference to the historic success of Chandrayaan-3 mission. The mission has already successfully accomplished all the objectives set for itself, such as safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, walking of the rover on the lunar surface and scientific experiments there. ISRO has already completed the life of the lander and the rover as per the plan. If both of them wake up then it will be a bonus.
Many ISRO scientists, while talking to Times of India, have stressed that the second innings of Vikram and Pragyan will be like a bonus in terms of the mission.