The spacecraft that ferried India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander-rover duo to the moon has returned home — form of.
In a surprise announcement on Monday (Dec. 4), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said it had moved Chandrayaan-3‘s propulsion module out of lunar orbit and placed it high above Earth for a bonus mission, where it now survives on leftover fuel. The brand new experiment will exhibit technologies that can help Indian scientists bring samples from the moon to Earth someday, ISRO said.
The propulsion module, a box-shaped component of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft powered by solar panels, now circles Earth every two weeks. ISRO has not revealed what it plans to do with the spacecraft when it runs out of fuel.
Related: Chandrayaan-3: A whole guide to India’s third mission to the moon
On Nov. 22, the module reached its closest point to Earth, coming inside 95,000 miles (154,000 kilometers) of the planet’s surface, ISRO officials said. That was still high enough up, nevertheless, to be safely away from other satellites.
“As per current orbit prediction, there isn’t any threat of close approach with any operational Earth-orbiting satellites,” said ISRO.
Earlier this 12 months, the propulsion module accomplished its fundamental task when it placed Chandrayaan-3’s robotic lander and rover in a decent orbit across the moon, prior to their historic landing near the south pole in August. The module then moved to a rather higher orbit across the moon for a science experiment, studying our planet to help with the seek for Earth-like exoplanets.
By the top of sooner or later on the moon — a few month to us Earthlings — the module had 220 kilos (100 kilograms) of fuel left after its primary operations. By then, the first objectives of the mission had been completed, so ISRO decided to bring it back to Earth, the space agency said within the Dec. 4 statement.
In early October, the module was boosted from 93 miles (150 km) above the surface of the moon to somewhat over 3,100 miles (5,000 km). To realize the momentum required to return to Earth, it whirled across the moon 4 times before making its way home, said ISRO.
Chandrayaan-3’s robotic explorers notched several huge milestones and picked up precious science data after landing in August at a spot that India calls Shiv Shakti Point. (The moniker is yet to be accepted by the International Astronomical Union, the authority chargeable for assigning official names to celestial objects and their landmarks.)
In a primary, the six-wheeled, solar-powered rover Pragyan spotted sulfur in lunar soil, which reveals insights concerning the moon’s volcanic past and will also help space travelers construct infrastructure on the moon. The lander Vikram made history of its own when it used a thermometer-like probe to measure the temperature of the moon’s soil, the primary such in-situ measurement ever taken, scientists have said.
The duo went silent in late September, missing a wakeup call that coincided with the sun’s reappearance at their site at the top of the long, cold lunar night. But there is not any shame in that; the 2 robots earned their (now apparently everlasting) rest.
“The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 have been completely met,” said ISRO.