New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has won the 2023 Leif Erikson Lunar Prize awarded by the Exploration Museum in Husavik (Iceland) for its successful Chandrayaan-3 mission.
The prestigious award celebrates the first soft-landing of a spacecraft near the Lunar South Pole and “ISRO’s indomitable spirit in advancing lunar exploration”, the Embassy of India in Reykjavik said in a social media post. https://www.facebook.com/
ISRO Chairman S. Somanath sent a “thank you” video message on the occasion and the prize was received by Ambassador B. Shyam on behalf of the space agency.
The Leif Erikson Award is an annual prize given by the Exploration Museum since 2015. It is named after Leif Erikson — a Norse explorer thought to be the first European to set foot on continental America, almost four centuries before the expedition of Christopher Columbus.
Chandrayaan-3 was India’s third mission to the Moon, and the second attempt to carry out a soft-landing on the lunar surface. ISRO managed to place the Vikram lander on the lunar surface and roll out the robotic rover, Pragyaan.
Both instruments collected data and beamed it back to Earth for 15 days — before being put to sleep as the lunar night set in.
Attempts to revive the instruments at the end of another 15 days were unsuccessful. The mission was, however, able to fulfil all its primary objectives.
Additionally, the Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload — which is meant to observe the Earth — operated from within the propulsion module of the spacecraft.
Since the module had leftover fuel of over 100 kg, ISRO decided to use it to conduct an additional experiment that would help inform future lunar missions and a potential sample return mission.
The propulsion module was manoeuvered and placed in a suitable Earth orbit. The SHAPE payload continues to operate out of the propulsion module.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: “Chandrayaan brings more laurels”: Jaishankar congratulates ISRO for Leif Erikson Lunar Prize