Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
There is an odd logic in returning to the hard place where you once failed. In September 2019, the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-2 lost contact during its final descent and crashed. Four years later, ISRO sent a new lander of the same name to the same difficult region, near the lunar south pole.
The reason is water. Near the poles the Sun stays low in the sky, and the floors of some deep craters never see sunlight. Scientists believe ice may lie frozen in that permanent dark. It could one day give future crews drinking water, oxygen and even rocket fuel.
The same low Sun that guards the ice makes landing treacherous. Shadows stretch far across the ground and hide boulders and crater edges from a descending craft’s cameras. So the mission did not aim for the pole itself. Vikram was sent to a site some distance from it, close enough to be new ground for science, flat enough to give the lander a fair chance.
What changed between the two attempts was less the destination than the mindset. The engineers behind Chandrayaan-3 were a chastened team. Instead of designing for everything going right, they asked what might go wrong and built for it. The lander got sturdier legs that could survive a harder touchdown. It was also given a far larger patch of ground to settle on, rather than one small target to hit exactly. This is a less glamorous kind of courage, and I think the more useful one.
On 23 August 2023, Vikram came down gently near the south pole. Soon after, the Pragyan rover rolled down a ramp onto the grey soil. Many people watching saw boldness. The engineers, one suspects, felt mostly relief that the dull work of planning for failure had paid off.
Which of the following statements are NOT true according to the passage?
(A) Vikram of Chandrayaan-3 landed at the exact point of the lunar south pole.
(B) Long shadows near the pole can hide boulders from the cameras of a landing craft.
(C) After the landing, the Pragyan rover left the lander by moving down a ramp.
(D) The lander of Chandrayaan-2 had been sent to a different region of the Moon from the one chosen for Chandrayaan-3.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → (A) and (D) only
The question asks for the statements that are NOT true.
(A) Vikram of Chandrayaan-3 landed at the exact point of the lunar south pole. — Not true.
- The mission “did not aim for the pole itself”.
- Vikram was sent to a site “some distance from it”.
(B) Long shadows near the pole can hide boulders from the cameras of a landing craft. — True.
- The passage says shadows “hide boulders and crater edges” from a descending craft’s cameras.
(C) After the landing, the Pragyan rover left the lander by moving down a ramp. — True.
- The passage says the Pragyan rover “rolled down a ramp onto the grey soil”.
(D) The lander of Chandrayaan-2 had been sent to a different region of the Moon from the one chosen for Chandrayaan-3. — Not true.
- ISRO sent the new lander “to the same difficult region”, near the lunar south pole.