chandrayaan and lunar night

[Variety_Pullayya]

The night challenge -

As the first 14-day lunar day culminates, a 14-day lunar night awaits.

During this period, lunar surface temperatures fall drastically to around minus 180 degrees Celsius.

Such extreme cold, clubbed with no sunlight makes any technology non-operational.

Consequently, according to ISRO, Vikram and Pragyan, reliant on sunlight, may enter a state of inactivity.

However, M Srikanth, Chandrayaan-3 mission operations director sounded optimistic when he said, "The performance of Vikram and Pragyan so far and the overall health of all systems have increased hopes of the two coming back to life after the night passes."

Night survival -

While the fate of Vikram and Pragyan during the lunar night seems uncertain, ISRO has not dismissed the possibility of their revival when sunlight returns to the lunar horizon, either.

Srikanth explained, "Our batteries have sufficient capacity to tackle small eclipses, but they are not powerful enough to keep the systems warm throughout a lunar night."

This means that the systems will enter a state of dormancy during the lunar night.