National Space Day: Learning about the Moon through Chandrayaan-3 — It landed, waited and slept, but its journey will continue

On Friday, August 23, India celebrated its first National Space Day. Exactly a year ago on this day, India made history by becoming the first country to soft-land on the South Pole of the Moon, thanks to the Chandrayaan 3 mission and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). To commemorate this historic achievement, India will now celebrate National Space Day every year on August 23.

A throwback to Chandrayaan missions in India

It was five years ago, in 2019, when the crash landing of the Chandrayaan 2 mission shattered millions of hopes. It was heartbreaking to see the then ISRO chief K Sivan burst into tears. But the The Chandrayaan 2 mission was a setback and not a total failure.

Fast forward to August 2023All eyes were on the next mission, Chandrayaan 3. The LVM3 M4 vehicle had successfully launched Chandrayaan-3 into orbit on July 14, 2023.

ISRO, under the leadership of S Somanath, took some lessons from the Chandrayaan 2 mission to carry out the Chandrayaan 3 ReleasedSomanath earlier said that an image captured by the The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter was used to “better identify locations” The agency had also analysed failure scenarios, among other strategies, to achieve a soft landing of the Chandrayaan 3 mission’s lander and rover at the lunar south pole.

The Indian space agency achieved the feat on August 23. “I have reached my destination and so have you!” The Chandrayaan 3 rover descended from the lander and India conducted a walk on the Moon on August 24, 2023.

Since then, the Chandrayaan-3 mission has carried out ground-breaking experiments and produced enlightening discoveries through three payloads on the Vikram lander and two payloads on the Pragyan rover.

Key findings from the mission so far are detailed below:

1. 70 degrees on the Moon: The first observations were made on August 27 with ChaSTE (Chandra Surface Thermophysical Experiment). The payload onboard the Vikram lander measured the temperature profile of the surface layer of lunar soil around the pole to understand the thermal behavior of the Moon’s surface.

The ChaSTE payload has a temperature probe equipped with a controlled penetration mechanism, which is capable of reaching a depth of 10 cm below the surface. ISRO scientist BHM Darukesha had told PTI, “We all believed that the temperature could be somewhere Around 20 degrees Celsius to 30 degrees Celsius on the surface, but it is 70 degrees. Celsius. This is surprisingly higher than we expected.”

2. Sulfur on the Moon confirmed: On August 28, ISRO said the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument onboard the rover made the first in situ measurements of the elemental composition of the lunar surface near the south pole.

“These in situ measurements confirm the presence of sulfur. “Hydrogen is already present on the Moon, but it has not been possible to detect it with the instruments on board the orbiters,” the space agency added.

According to ISRO, preliminary analyses revealed the presence of aluminium (Al), sulphur (S), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr) and titanium (Ti) on the lunar surface. Other measurements revealed the presence of manganese (Mn), silicon (Si) and oxygen (O).

3. Minor elements on the Moon: ISRO announced on August 30, 2023, that the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) onboard the rover also “discovered the presence of interesting minor elements, including sulfur, in addition to the expected major elements such as aluminum, silicon, calcium and iron.”

4. Dispersed plasma: ISRO reported on 31 August 2023 that the Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere Langmuir probe (RAMBHA-LP) payload onboard the Chandrayaan-3 lander has made the first-ever in situ measurements of the surface-bound lunar plasma environment over the south polar region of the Moon.

“He Initial assessment indicates that the plasma surrounding the lunar surface is relatively sparse.characterized by a number density varying between approximately 5 and 30 million electrons per cubic meter,” ISRO said.

5. Recorded vibrations: The Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) payload onboard the Chandrayaan 3 lander recorded vibrations that occurred due to the movements of the Rover and other payloads. The vibrations were recorded during the Rover’s navigation on August 25, 2023.

6. A moonquake?: The payload also recorded “an event, apparently natural, on 26 August 2023.” ISRO said the source of this event is under investigation. ILSA’s goal is to measure ground vibrations caused by Natural earthquakes (or moonquakes), impacts and man-made events.

7. Unplanned hop experiment: The Vikram lander surprised ISRO with its successful ‘kick-start experiment’. What is its significance? The ‘kick-start experiment’ “excites future manned and sample return missions.”

“Vikram has soft landed on 🌖, again!” ISRO exclaimed“When commanded, it fired its engines, rose about 40 cm as expected and landed safely at a distance of 30 to 40 cm away,” he said.

8. Magma ocean on the Moon?: The Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission recently found data supporting the Theory that Earth’s satellite was once covered by an ocean of magma..

The Chandrayaan 3 lander and rover are now in sleep mode, but…

…the journey will continue

India on Friday celebrated its first National Space Day with the theme “Touching Lives While Touching the Moon: India’s Space Saga”.

Speaking at an event in New Delhi to mark the first National Space Day, Somanath said, “The journey of Chandrayaan 3 will continue… Chandrayaan 4’s blueprint is readyWe have shown how to get to the Moon, but now we have to show how to get back from there.”