India’s moon rover completes mission and is put to ‘sleep’

India’s space mission said its moon rover has completed its walk on the lunar surface less than two weeks after its historic landing near the lunar South Pole.

“The Rover completed its assignments. Is now safely parked and set into sleep mode,” the Indian Space Research organization said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.

The rover’s payloads were turned off and the data it collected was transmitted to Earth via the lander. Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate only for one lunar day, which is equal to 14 days on Earth.

The organization said that the battery is fully charged and that its solar panel will be ready to receive light at the next sunrise, which is expected on Sept. 22. The organization added that it is “hoping for a successful awakening for another set of assignments.”

The rover was searching for signs of frozen water on the lunar surface that could possibly help future astronaut missions so that it could be a source of drinking water or could make rocket fuel. The organization did not detail whether the rover found frozen water.

The space agency said earlier this week that the rover confirmed that there was sulfur and other elements on the lunar surface, including aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon.

After India’s successful mission of landing the rover on the moon last week, it became the fourth country after the United States, the Soviet Union and China to hit this goal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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