A city-based artist and goldsmith has recreated the Chandrayaan-3 lander-rover configuration in gold to commemorate the August 23 soft-landing on the lunar south pole. What’s amazing about the scale model is that it’s so tiny it sits on the head of a pin. You actually need a magnifying lens to make out the features!
The miniature model is the work of Ganesh Subramaniam of Poojappura, an artist known for similar, hand-crafted Lilliputian creations that have won him accolades and a place in record books. The work, in gold and acrylic, shows the Vikram lander with its ramp down and the rover Pragyan half-way down it.
Perched on a pin-head, the miniature model is only 0.80 mm in height. Three milligrams of gold went into the work. Acrylic was used to craft the solar panels and the wheels of the rover. Mr. Subramaniam says it took him two months of painstaking work to complete the model.
