India successfully placed the Vikram probe and the Pragyan rover at the moon’s south pole, which on Thursday began exploring lunar craters where frozen water is expected to exist. The mission is 12 days away, and the rover can move at a speed of 1 cm per second.

On August 23, India achieved what no other nation had achieved before: it delivered a probe and rover to the South Pole region of the Moon.

• The historic mission – India has successfully landed. The Vikram probe reached the surface of the Moon

15 hours after landing, the rover named Pragyan began moving on the lunar soil, leaving the Vikram probe, in which it was embedded, using a ramp.

The rover has six wheels, weighs 27 kg and has a maximum speed of 1 cm/s. It can be moved a maximum of 500 m away from the Vikram lander.

Pragyan is tasked with mapping the terrain and chemically analyzing the distribution of various elements in the lunar soil.

The rover will “walk” over relatively flat terrain sandwiched between two craters called Manzinus C and Sympelius N.

The rover has solar panels and two spectrometers with which it will study the composition of the lunar soil in the selenization zone. The rover has its own cameras and sensors so it can avoid obstacles, but it will remain in the Vikram probe’s field of view and its movements will be closely monitored.

Vikram has four instruments on board, one of which is a thermal probe that will analyze the temperature and other properties of the lunar soil. Vikram also has a seismograph.

After 12 days, the shadow will fall on the Vikram lander and the small rover, and the mission will end, as the two spacecraft cannot withstand temperatures below -200 C during the lunar night.