BENGALURU: With dawn breaking on the Moon, ISRO is now gearing up to try to reestablish communication with its lunar mission Chandrayaan-3’s solar- powered lander Vikram and rover Pragyan, to revive them to continue scientific experiments.

Both the lander and the rover were put into sleep mode earlier this month on September 4 and 2 respectively, ahead of the lunar night setting in on Earth’s only natural satellite. So, if ISRO is able to revive them as the Sun rises on the Moon again, information that is derived from experiments that could once again be conducted by the Chandrayaan-3 payloads would be a “bonus”. With sunlight back on the south polar region of the Moon, where both the lander and rover are located, and their solar panels expected to be optimally charged soon, ISRO is now slated to make efforts to establish contact with them again, check their health and ability to resume functioning, and try to revive them. “From September 20 onwards, sunrise will be on at the Moon and by September 22 we hope that the solar panel and other things will be fully charged,” said ISRO’s Space Applications Centre Director Nilesh Desai “If our luck is good, we will have the revival of both.”