Rover: Pragyan
Landing zone: lunar south polar region (Shiv Shakti Point)
Rover distance: ~101 m
Mission life: one lunar day (~14 Earth days); no revival after sleep mode
India’s third lunar mission, and the one that made it the first country to land near the Moon’s south pole. The lander Vikram touched down on 23 August 2023 and released the rover Pragyan, which travelled about 101 metres and confirmed the presence of sulphur in the polar regolith. Both carried instruments that measured temperature, seismic activity and plasma conditions. They operated for a single lunar day — about fourteen Earth days — and were put into sleep mode in September 2023 with their receivers left on. Attempts to re-establish contact when sunlight returned were unsuccessful, and neither revived. The mission outlived its hardware in another way: ISRO is now developing artificial heating to carry electronics through the lunar night, aiming to extend future lander life from fourteen days to as much as two hundred.