【Short film Archives】

India's moon rover is Short film Archivesproving to be a scrappy, resilient space explorer.

While cruising the dark and craggy lunar terrain at the south pole region Sunday, Pragyan came within 10 feet of a crater plenty big enough to swallow the whole buggy.

It was a close call, but the rover's navigation cameras spotted the crater, about 13 feet wide, just in time. Pragyan was then commanded to retrace its path to avoid the hazard, according to the Indian Space Research Organization, India's version of NASA.

---

You May Also Like

---

---

"It's now safely heading on a new path," the space agency said Monday.

SEE ALSO: India's moon lander makes history as first to reach coveted south pole

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The success of Chandrayaan-3, which means "moon craft" in Hindi, places India among the former Soviet Union, United States, and China: global superpowers-turned-spacefarers who have landed on the moon 239,000 miles away. The victory comes four years after India's Chandrayaan-2 mission crashed attempting the same feat of landing near the moon's south pole.

India's accomplishment follows mere days after the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, lost its Luna-25 robotic spacecraft in a crash. The dueling Indian and Russian missions were each trying to set their crewless spacecraft down near the south pole last week.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

The Pragyan rover, a golden six-wheeled vehicle, continues to survive the harsh lunar environment. Credit: ISRO / X screenshot

Want more scienceand tech news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable's Light Speed newslettertoday.

India's rover avoided a 13-foot-wide crater. Credit: ISRO

Many nations and private ventures have set their sights on the polar region because of its ice, buried in the craters. The natural resource is coveted because it could supply drinking water, air, and rocket fuel for future missions, ushering a new era in spaceflight.

But those craters are also part of what makes missions to the south pole so dangerous. Long shadows sweeping the moonscape create difficult lighting and temperature conditions. To navigate, rovers must be able to see the steep pits to avoid tipping down the edges.

---

Related Stories

---

• India shares video proof of its phenomenal moon landing and rover
• India's moon lander makes history as first to reach coveted south pole
• NASA is back in the moon business. Here's what that means.
• Indian spacecraft captures stunning view of moon before intense landing
• Right now 2 nations are racing to the moon to land at the south pole

The Pragyan rover, a golden six-wheeled vehicle, continues to survive the harsh environment. Its instruments are conducting experiments, such as a study of the chemicals and minerals in the lunar soil.

NASA's VIPER moon rover was designed to be agile for any kind of soil it could encounter at the lunar south pole. Credit: NASA / Matthew Machlis

Because the south pole hasn't been explored until now, scientists haven't known for sure what to expect: Is the soil hard and dense or loose and fluffy? That's why NASA has designed its own Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, to be ready for anything.

The U.S. rover will be engineered to drive "sideways or diagonally, spin in a circle and move in any direction without changing the way it faces," NASA said. "If it encounters soft soils, it will even be able to walk its wheels by moving each wheel independently to free itself."

VIPER is slated to land on the moon in late 2024.

• Social Good
• Science
• Shopping
• Deals
• Digital Culture
• Tech
• Entertainment
• Games

• The State of PC Gaming in 2016
• Did George Lucas want Luke Skywalker to survive 'The Last Jedi'?
• 'Pokémon Go's biggest update adds a storyline and daily quests
• Dude escapes from jail Indiana Jones style by ducking under a closing door
• Virtual Reality: The True Cost of Admission (and Why It Doesn't Matter)
• Superfan's 'Simpsons'
• Steven Soderbergh's 'Unsane' is a horror movie for the #MeToo era
• New plan would pay your deposit back if you return your drinks containers
• The fat bears are already extremely fat
• Here's what the critics think of 'Ready Player One'

• Prime Day deal: Prime members can snag a free 3
• Uber will tell you the average fare and wait time in over 10,000 cities
• Unitree G1 Robots battle in world’s first humanoid robot combat tournament · TechNode
• Prime Day 2024: Kindle Paperwhite gets a tiny price cut
• China shelves restructuring plan to merge Changan and Dongfeng · TechNode
• Amazon Prime Day deal: Apple Studio Display monitor hits all
• Xiaomi Redmi Turbo 4 Pro reaches one million units sold in under a month · TechNode
• Lenovo unveils full
• Huawei chairman Xu Zhijun calls for new growth drivers in the telecom industry · TechNode
• Best Prime Day headphones deal: Get Beats Studio Pro 51% off

• The Anatomy of Liberal Melancholy
• Reddit Gold pulls bitcoin payment option
• A brilliant artist reimagined characters from 'The Office' as cartoons
• Uber driver gets stuck on staircase, of course blames navigation app
• Auburn vs. Creighton 2025 livestream: How to watch March Madness for free
• Naomi Wadler had a powerful message to share with March For Our Lives
• 'Lego The Incredibles' makes family team
• Yamaha unveils fleet of electric
• Best Amazon Fire TV Cube deal: Save $30 at Amazon
• Professor makes students dance when they're late, and this dude went ALL out

• Productivity Boost: Enable 'Night Mode' on All Your Devices
• Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal paves way for data changes
• Uber's self
• Apple confirms the App Store is down for many users
• Galaxy S9+ vs Pixel 2 XL Camera
• The largest protests in American history are happening right now
• An ode to the wonderfully wholesome world of 'Sesame Street' Twitter
• Apple confirms the App Store is down for many users
• Best vacuum mop combo deal: Save $140 on the Tineco Floor One S5
• Facebook puts full