The Indian lunar rover Pragyaan moves over the Moon 



India's Chandrayaan-3 moon rover has left the spaceship to begin its lunar surface exploration, the country's space agency said on messaging service X, previously known as Twitter.

India became the first nation to accomplish that accomplishment when its spacecraft landed on the uncharted south pole of the moon on Wednesday night, days after Russia's Luna-25 was unsuccessful.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in its message on Thursday morning that "the Ch-3 Rover ramped down from the Lander and India took a walk on the Moon!"

Over the course of its two-week existence, the six-wheeled, solar-powered rover, dubbed Pragyan (meaning knowledge in Sanskrit), will wander the largely uncharted region and send pictures and scientific data.

It cost roughly 6.15 billion Indian rupees ($74.58 million) to complete India's second lunar landing attempt. A successful orbiter was deployed by Chandrayaan-2 in 2019 but its lander collapsed.

In Hindi and Sanskrit, Chandrayaan is translated as "moon vehicle".

The moon's rocky south pole is sought after because of its water ice, which is thought to be capable of supplying fuel, oxygen, and drinking water for future expeditions. However, landing is difficult due to the pole's hard terrain.

On Wednesday, viewers from all around the nation tuned in to see the landing, with more than seven million people alone watching the YouTube broadcast.

India has a space project with a very low budget, but it has expanded significantly in scope and velocity since it sent its first probe into lunar orbit in 2008.

The fact that Chandrayaan-3 was far less expensive than numerous missions from other nations is proof of India's cost-effective space engineering.

India sent a vehicle into orbit around Mars in 2014, becoming the first Asian country to do so, and it has plans to launch a probe towards the sun in September.

By the end of the year, ISRO plans to launch a three-day crewed trip into Earth's orbit.

It also has plans to send a second probe to the Moon in collaboration with Japan by 2025, as well as an orbital mission to Venus in the following two years.