NASA images from Mars falsely shared as visuals captured by Chandrayaan-3

By: Rahul Adhikari
August 31 2023

Share Article:

What's the claim?

The Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 successfully executed a soft landing on the Moon on August 23. As this was broadcast live, people shared photos and videos of the landing moment on social media to celebrate the achievement. Amid this, several people shared old and unrelated videos, linking them with Chandrayaan-3. Three such videos circulating on Facebook inaccurately attribute footage to the Indian lunar mission. All the viral videos show deserted, rocky landscapes filled with dust. One of the videos has tire marks, one shows tracks and some rocks, and another video features a rover. Users have shared the videos with the same Bengali caption that reads, "Beautiful scenery of Chandrayaan located at the south pole of the moon, some beautiful videos of the moon taken in daylight." An archived version of the post can be found here.

Screenshots of Facebook posts featuring the footage. (Source: Screenshot/Facebook/Altered by Logically Facts)

However, the videos have been created by zooming in on images captured by NASA rovers and have no relation to the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission.

Video showing rover

This video shows a rocky, dusty, and deserted landscape with a large rover equipped with cameras in the center. A reverse image search on the video's keyframes directed us to the NASA website, where we found that the rover featured in the viral video is the Curiosity rover, which was launched on November 26, 2011, and landed on Mars on August 5, 2012.

Further research revealed that NASA's Mars rover Curiosity captured the self-portrait between April and May 2014 at the Windjana drilling site. The rover employed the camera at the end of its arm to capture dozens of component images combined into this self-portrait. NASA published the image on its website on June 23, 2014. Subsequently, it was included in a NASA press release after the Curiosity rover completed one Martian year, equivalent to 687 Earth days, on June 24. 

Image comparison between the viral video and NASA's Curiosity rover. (Source: Screenshot/Facebook/NASA/Altered by Logically Facts)

NASA also published the image in September 2015 from its X account, NASA 360. Further, NASA published a video report on the Curiosity rover in August 2015 after the rover spent three years on Mars. The image used in the viral post was included in the video and can be seen at the 1:24 timestamp.

2015 video report of NASA's 2015 Curiosity rover. (Source: YouTube)

Video of tracks and rocks

This video depicts a dusty landscape with tire marks and a patch of scattered rocks. Our research revealed that the video was created using an image of Mars captured by a NASA rover. The same image was published on NASA's Mars exploration website on January 3, 2008, titled "D-Star Panorama by Opportunity." A comparison, as seen below, shows several visual similarities.

Image comparison between the viral video and the image published by NASA. (Source: Screenshot/Facebook/NASA/Altered by Logically Facts)

The image displays the tracks left by a drive executed with more onboard autonomy than has been utilized on any other drive by a Mars rover, NASA said. The website added that the Opportunity rover captured the image, which was launched in 2003, landed on Mars in January 2004, and remained active on the red planet until June 2018. Communication with it was disrupted after a severe Mars-wide dust storm blanketed its location.

Video of tire track

The third viral video shows tire marks on a dusty and deserted landscape. This video was also created using an image of Mars captured by a NASA rover. The image was published on NASA's Mars Exploration website on February 14, 2023.

Image comparison between the viral video and the image published by NASA. (Source: Screenshot/Facebook/NASA/Altered by Logically Facts)

According to the image's caption, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this portrait of its recently completed sample depot using its Mastcam-Z camera on January 31, 2023. The Perseverance rover was launched on July 30, 2020, and landed on Mars on February 18, 2021.

We couldn't find any such videos posted by ISRO. After the landing on August 23, ISRO has shared several images of the moon, including ones of the Pragyan rover, the Vikram lander, and a crater on the surface of the moon.

The verdict

The claim that Chandrayaan-3 captured the viral videos is false. Images of Mars captured by NASA Mars rovers over the years have been shared as recent videos, with incorrect context of the Indian lunar mission. These visuals have no connection with ISRO or Chandrayaan-3. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.