Post Landing Operations of Lander and Rover - In Orbit Experiences

In any lunar landing mission, there comes an opportunity to demonstrate the safe and soft landing of lander on the lunar surface. The Lander module in turn carries the Rover which will touchdown the lunar surface for performing mobility and scientific operations using scientific payloads onboard. The prime mission objective of any Rover is to maximize the Rover movement over the lunar surface and operating the Rover payloads at every point and ensuring safe movement of the Rover. Chandrayaan-3. the prestigious lunar mission of India, wherein the Pragyaan Rover was launched onboard Vikram Lander which safely landed on the Lunar south pole region on 23rd August 2023 at 12:34 UT. After landing, the lander and rover initiated the targeted activities as per plan. The lander mission operations involve deploying the rover, operation of lander payloads, record and playback operations of lander and rover data. The rover mission operations include the pre-commissioning of the rover in full healthy condition, payload operations, rover mobility operations, imager operations to capture the lander and the terrain traversed by rover, data download from rover to lander, thermal, power management, final orientations for power generation of each mobility, and rover parked at an appropriate orientation conducive for power generation for next wake up etc. The first-time hands on experience of operating the rover from ground could be achieved only by appropriate mission planning and support from all the sub-system teams. All the multi-disciplinary activities were carried out semi-autonomously from ground flawlessly. This paper provides the detailed mission operations carried out at lander and rover end post successful landing.