Pragyan

Mission Profile

Pragyan is India's six-wheeled solar-powered lunar rover, deployed by the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander on 23 August 2023 after India's successful landing near the lunar south pole. Weighing 26 kg and equipped with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instruments, Pragyan traversed 100 meters of lunar surface in 14 days before entering sleep mode as the lunar night approached. The rover confirmed the presence of sulfur, aluminum, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen in the south polar regolith, providing the first in-situ compositional analysis from this scientifically significant region. Pragyan remains in dormancy on the lunar surface, with no confirmed reactivation following the lunar night.