NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s moon rover has accomplished its stroll on the lunar floor and been put into sleep mode lower than two weeks after its historic touchdown close to the lunar south pole, India’s area mission stated.

“The rover completes its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into sleep mode,” with daylight on that a part of the moon coming to an finish, the Indian Space Research Organization stated in an announcement late Saturday.

The rover’s payloads are turned off and the information it collected has been transmitted to the Earth through the lander, the assertion stated.

The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover had been anticipated to function just for one lunar day, which is the same as 14 days on Earth.

“Currently, the battery is fully charged. The solar panel is oriented to receive the light at the next sunrise expected on September 22, 2023. The receiver is kept on. Hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments!” the assertion stated.

There was no phrase on the end result of the rover searches for indicators of frozen water on the lunar floor that would assist future astronaut missions, as a possible supply of ingesting water or to make rocket gas.

Last week, the area company stated the moon rover confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected a number of different parts. The rover’s laser-induced spectroscope instrument additionally detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon on the floor, it stated.

The Indian Express newspaper stated the electronics on board the Indian moon mission weren’t designed to resist very low temperatures, lower than -120 C (-184 F) through the nighttime on the moon. The lunar night time additionally extends for so long as 14 days on Earth.

Pallava Bagla, a science author and co-author of books on India’s area exploration, stated the rover has restricted battery energy.

The information is again on Earth and can be analyzed by Indian scientists as a primary look after which by the worldwide neighborhood, he stated

By dawn on the moon, the rover could or could not get up as a result of the electronics die at such chilly temperatures, Bagla stated.

“Making electronic circuits and components that can survive the deep cold temperature of the moon, that technology doesn’t exist in India,” he stated.

After a failed try to land on the moon in 2019, India final week joined the United States, the Soviet Union and China as solely the fourth nation to realize this milestone.

The profitable mission showcases India’s rising standing as a know-how and area powerhouse and dovetails with Prime Minister Narendra Modi want to undertaking a picture of an ascendant nation asserting its place among the many international elite.

The mission started greater than a month in the past at an estimated value of $75 million.

India’s success got here simply days after Russia’s Luna-25, which was aiming for a similar lunar area, spun into an uncontrolled orbit and crashed. It had been supposed to be the primary profitable Russian lunar touchdown after a niche of 47 years.

Russia’s head of the state-controlled area company Roscosmos attributed the failure to the lack of know-how due to the lengthy break in lunar analysis that adopted the final Soviet mission to the moon in 1976.

Active for the reason that Nineteen Sixties, India has launched satellites for itself and different nations, and efficiently put one in orbit round Mars in 2014. India is planning its first mission to the International Space Station subsequent 12 months, in collaboration with the United States.