Engineers at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have begun work to bring the lunar lander and rover Chandrayaan-3 out of hibernation after two weeks of cold lunar night. On Friday, September 22, ISRO said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it was making efforts to “establish contact with the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover to detect their wake status.”

So far, engineers have had no word from the iconic duo, the first two human-made objects to land in the Moon’s south polar region.

“Efforts to establish contact will continue,” ISRO said in a statement. said.

Chandrayaan-3 landed near the moon’s south pole on August 23, becoming the fourth country in history to set foot on the moon after India, the United States, Russia and China.

For the next two weeks, Pragyan explored the landing site and retrieved the images. Worldand Vikram conducted a number of scientific experiments, including measuring the temperature of the upper layer of the lunar regolith. The probe also analyzed the chemical composition of lunar dust and found traces of sulfur that may hold clues to past volcanic activity.

The Pragyan rover went into sleep mode on September 2, when all its instruments were turned off. The Vikram lander followed two days later. The mission achieved its primary objectives but ISRO hopes the two spacecraft can survive the cold lunar night.

Chandrayaan-3 was India’s second attempt to land on the moon. The mission’s predecessor, Chandrayaan-2, crashed in 2019 due to a software glitch. However, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is still studying the Moon from lunar orbit.