The eyes and ears of Pragyan that help rover find its way on moon

Subject :Science and technology

Section: Space technology

Context:

With the Chandrayaan-3’s lander module Vikram successfully making a touchdown on the moon and the rover Pragyan ramping down, one camera developed by Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS) in Bengaluru has already made an impact while another would be guiding the Pragyan as it traverses the moon’s surface.

About Pragyan rover:

Weight: 26 kg
Speed: 1 cm per second
Landing Location: Between the craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N.
Rover Pragyan cannot move more than 500m away from the lander Vikram, to ensure that they are able to send signals between each other. The rover can communicate only with the lander.
What will it do?
- It will move around the moon’s surface in low gravity and a thin atmosphere in a semi-autonomous way and avoiding hazards.
- Its instruments will study what the materials on the moon’s surface near the landing site are made of.
Other features:
- Its solar panel produces 50W of power.
- Has rocker- bogie suspension
- The rover has six wheels. The wheel treads will imprint ISRO logo and Ashoka lions emblem on the ground.
Why does it have a short life-Span?
- When the sun sets on the moon, an area will become dark and very cold. This can damage the battery and other electronic components.
- When the sun rises again after 14 days, the rover can return to life if the components have survived. This is unlikely.

Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera (LHVC):

LHVC, which was initially developed for the Chandrayaan-2 mission, has also been adopted for the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
LHVC has an important role of measuring horizontal velocity during the Lander descent phase.
It does a complex algorithm calculating the velocity in which the lander is travelling.

Navigation Camera (NAVCAM):

The second camera is the Navigation camera (NAVCAM) and two of them will be the eyes of the Rover, guiding it as it traverses the moon’s surface.
Both NAVCAMs are fitted in the front of the rover for path planning and obstacle avoidance for the rover.
Both the cameras were developed for the Chandrayaan-2 lander and rover.

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS):

Its weight is 1.5kg and consumes 5W of power.
A powerful laser is shined on a target sample, until it blow off a few atoms and causes the sample to emit some radiation
Detectors study this radiation to understand what the same is made of.

Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS):

Its weight is 0.7 kg and consumes 4W.
Blasts a target sample with X-rays emitted by radioactive material (curium-244).
Atoms in the sample absorb the X-rays and then release them at a different frequency.
Based on this frequency, scientists can say which elements the sample contains