No hope of waking up lander and rover now, says space scientist
signalling possible end of Chandrayaan-3 odyssey
Bengaluru (PTI): There is now no hope of waking up the Chandrayaan-3's moon lander and rover, an eminent space scientist said on Friday, signalling a possible end to India's third lunar mission.
Space Commission member and former ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar, who was actively associated with the mission, told PTI: "No, no, there won't be any more hope of reviving. Now, if it should have happened, it should have happened by now. There is (now) no chance at all."
The ISRO said on September 22 -- after a new lunar day began -- efforts have been made to establish communication with solar-powered Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to ascertain their wake-up condition. As of now, no signals have been received from them. Efforts to establish contact will continue, it had said then.
With the Chandrayaan-3 mission, India scripted history on August 23 becoming the first country to touch down near the lunar south pole; and the fourth in the world to achieve soft-landing on the lunar surface after the US, the former Soviet Union and China.
The national space agency headquartered here had put the lander and rover into sleep mode, on September 4 and 2, respectively, before the sun set on the moon, hoping for their awakening at the next sunrise around September 22.
The lander and the rover are designed to operate for one lunar daylight period (about 14 earth days).
According to ISRO officials, all the three Chandrayaan-3 mission objectives -- demonstration of a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, and demonstration of the rover roving on the moon and undertaking of in-situ scientific experiments on the lunar surface by its payloads and that of the lander -- have been achieved.
After landing on the moon, scientific payloads of the lander and the 26-kg six-wheeled rover had performed experiments one after the other so as to complete them within 14 earth days, before the pitch darkness and extreme cold weather engulfed the Moon.
ISRO officials had said that if it was able to reestablish communication with the lander and rover, it would be a "bonus"
"If our luck is good, we will have the revival of both the lander and rover and we will get some more experimental data, which will be useful for us to further do investigation of the moon surface", an official of the space agency had said.
On September 4, ISRO said Vikram lander exceeded its mission objectives. It successfully underwent a "hop" experiment. On command, it fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected and landed safely at a distance of 30 - 40 cm away. Importance ? This 'kick-start' enthuses future sample return and human missions !
The space agency said on September two that the rover completed its assignments, adding: "Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments! Else, it will forever stay there as India's lunar ambassador."
On the accomplishment of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, Kiran Kumar said: "In the larger sense, what you have achieved definitely is you have reached an area (south pole) where nobody else has gone and got in-situ data of that region. And that is actually very useful information. It will benefit subsequent (missions) both in terms of knowledge and in terms of planning the activities that you want to do in that region".
He also spoke about the possibility of ISRO undertaking a sample-return mission to the Moon but gave no timeframe to undertake such a venture.
"Yes, definitely in future it will all be there because these are all technological capabilities you keep developing, now this (Chandrayaan-3) has shown soft-landing and subsequent ones will pick up material from there and come back, all those missions will definitely be there," Kumar said.
"In the future many of these things will be in the works. Plans will be made and then proposals will be put up based on the overall vision of technology development", he said. "It purely depends on how the overall planning happens, and how much resources are made available, so it's very difficult to tell (the time-frame for the sample-return mission).
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'Engineered narratives': West Bengal guv on alleged molestation charges against him
Kolkata, May 2: West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose on Thursday said he will not be cowed down by “engineered narratives” and the "truth shall triumph” after TMC leaders claimed that a woman working at Raj Bhavan levelled allegations of molestation against him.
In a statement, the Governor said, “Truth shall triumph. I refuse to be cowed down by engineered narratives. If anybody wants some election benefits by maligning me, God bless them. But they cannot stop my fight against corruption and violence in Bengal,”
To the Raj Bhavan staff "who expressed solidarity with him following some derogatory narratives that were circulated by two disgruntled employees as agents of political parties," a communication by Raj Bhawan said.
The Governor’s statement came after senior TMC leaders claimed this evening in a series of social media posts that the woman, who had levelled the allegations, has been taken to a police station to complain against Bose.
Though police sources said they received a verbal complaint, there was no official word on whether a formal complaint had been registered.
“BIG. Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose was accused of molesting a woman. How utterly appalling and Horrifying. Ahead of @narendramodi visit to Kolkata who is supposed to stay overnight at Raj Bhavan, a woman has alleged that she was molested while she went to meet the Governor at Raj Bhavan today. The complainant has been taken to the Hare Street police station for filing a complaint. The woman has accused the Governor of molesting her. Shocking and disgraceful,” TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose said in a post on X.
Fellow TMC MP Saket Gokhale also posted on his X account regarding the issue.
West Bengal Women and Child Development Minister Shashi Panja said it is “shameful” that the Governor has maligned his post and has used it to “torture a woman”.
“It is appalling and shocking to see such an incident. This is the same Governor who had reached out to Sandeshkhali to talk about women’s rights and Nari Shakti. This is shameful that the Governor sought undue advantages in the pretext of giving her a permanent job. We want Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will be addressing rallies in Bengal tomorrow to react on this issue,” she said.
According to sources in the Governor's House, the "woman employee with the help of her alleged boyfriend who is also an employee of the Raj Bhavan was blocking complaints (from people) being sent to the Election Commission of India.
"When she was reprimanded for that, she went outside and alleged molestation. She is in the habit of throwing tantrums against her colleagues because of some disease," a Raj Bhavan official said.
The West Bengal Governor and the TMC government have shared an acrimonious relationship since he assumed office in November 2022 and had several run-ins on various issues.
The BJP said it has to be seen whether this a “conspiracy by the TMC” or has an “iota of truth in it”.
“We all know that the TMC is politically cornered on the issue of SSC scam and is looking for a breathing space. So this needs to be seen whether this is a conspiracy by the TMC or it has any iota of truth in it,” BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said.
BIG. Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose accused of molesting a woman. How utterly APPALLING and HORRIFYING. Ahead of @narendramodi visit to Kolkata who is supposed to stay overnight at Raj Bhavan, a woman has alleged that she was molested while she went to meet the Governor at Raj…
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) May 2, 2024
Shameful that a constitutional office holder should try to prejudice an impartial investigation by attacking the motive of the complainant. We have seen this happen in that infamous Saturday Hearing of the Supreme Court. Respect women! https://t.co/E6eJLQvFXO
— sanjoy ghose (@advsanjoy) May 2, 2024
