No controversy over naming of Chandrayaan-3 landing site: ISRO chief

“The rover is moving as planned. We have been getting very interesting data from the rover which was never obtained in the past. Scientists will explain it in the coming days,’’ he said.

Regarding the naming of the landing site, he said: “The country has every right to name the landing site. Naming of the landing site is not the first incident. Several Indian names are already there on the moon. We have Sarabhai crater on the moon. Other countries have also named places related to their scientific accomplishment. All places related to even minor experiments would be named. That is a tradition.’’

Somanath said the lunar missions of several other countries had tried to land in the Moon’s south pole. It was very risky considering that the valleys and hills in that pole of the Moon and that sunlight is available only for 14 days. It was very difficult to find a flat area for landing the rover. These are the reasons for so many failures, he said.

“We took the risk because of the scientific potential of the unexplored south pole. There are chances of finding chemical elements and water. After the 14 days of sunlight, the rover and lander would go to a sleeping mode and when the sunlight is back, the system will automatically turn into live mode. If that happens, we would be lucky to get another 14 days. However, it involves a lot of risk elements,’’ he said.

Somanath, who reached here on Saturday, was speaking to the media after participating in special prayers at Sri Bala Tripura Sundari Devi temple at Venganoor near Thiruvananthapuram.