This Is What Chandrayan-3 Has Found On The Moon’s Surface Till 30th August ’23!
On August 23, the Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module successfully touched down at the South Pole of the Moon. Following this momentous achievement by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Pragyan Rover has been conducting investigations at the lunar South Pole in an effort to solve some of the moon’s mysteries. The mission had a total of three objectives. Two of these goals have already been met: the first was a successful soft landing in the lunar south pole, and the second was to safely land the rover on the surface of the moon. Experiments are currently being carried out on the moon in order to fulfil the third objective, which is currently being worked on.
The following is a list of some intriguing discoveries made by Chadrayaan-3 in the south polar region of the Moon so far:
Temperature at the moon’s South Pole
On August 27, ISRO published a graph that detailed the changes in temperature on the surface of the moon. The graph focused on the temperature at the moon’s South Pole. The senior scientist at the space agency was taken aback by the readings of the unexpectedly high temperature that were obtained from the surface of the moon. ISRO released an update in which they explained that in order to evaluate the temperature profile of the soil around the pole on the moon, they utilised a tool known as ChaSTE, which was located on Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram Lander. This was done in order to get an understanding of how the surface of the moon reacts to heat. ISRO scientist B H M Darukesha noted in an interview with the news agency PTI that they had estimated the temperature might vary from roughly 20 to 30 degrees Celsius on the surface, but it’s actually 70 degrees Celsius, which is far greater than what they initially anticipated. This information was provided by ISRO.
Crater Encounter
On August 27, the Chandrayaan-3 rover was investigating the surface of the Moon when it came across a crater that was 4 metres wide. This presented a problem for the rover. An update from the ISRO indicated that the crater was actually located three metres in front of where they first assumed it was. ISRO told the Rover to go in the opposite direction in order to tackle the situation and informed it that it was now on a different path and proceeding in a secure manner.
Elements on the Moon’s Surface
Moving forward in time to the 30th of August, the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope that was mounted on the Pragyan Rover discovered some fascinating elements on the surface of the moon close to the South Pole. They were able to establish that sulphur was present, in addition to discovering the presence of other elements such as aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen. The researchers are not giving up their search for hydrogen just yet.
At the moment, the Rover is working within a time limit, which can be metaphorically seen as “racing against time.” According to ANI’s report, Nilesh M. Desai, who is in charge of the Space Applications Centre and revealed on Sunday that they have a total of just 14 days for this entire mission, which is equivalent to just one day on the moon, said that they only have one day on the moon. They have already used up four of those days as of right now. He underlined that it is vitally crucial for them to make the most of the remaining ten days by conducting as many experiments and research as possible in order to get the most out of their time. In addition to that, he stated that each and every scientist working for ISRO is contributing their best efforts.
