India’s space agency, ISRO, landed a spacecraft on the moon’s south pole. This mission has promoted India’s aspirations for space exploration and increased our understanding of lunar water ice, which may be one of the moon’s most precious resources. With its Chandrayaan-3, the country became the fourth country to have landed on the surface of the Moon.
Chandrayaan-3
The Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander and rover project was launched by the ISRO, India’s space agency. On July 14, 2023, the spacecraft was launched, and on August 23, 2023, it landed in the southern polar zone of the Moon. Science tools fitted to the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover will help us understand the Moon better.
Since it is simpler and safer to land here, every previous spacecraft that has touched down on the Moon has done so close to the equator. For a prolonged and sustained operation of instruments, the terrain and temperature are more favorable. Sunlight is also available, providing solar-powered devices with a consistent source of energy.
But, Chandrayaan-3 is now the first to have landed and to explore the South Pole of the moon.
Payloads, or the items that spacecraft take with them to monitor and record events in space, are frequently carried by spacecraft. Scientists on Earth then receive this information to analyze and research.
The six payloads on the Pragyan rover and the Vikram lander are the same as they were on the last mission. To examine lunar quakes, lunar surface thermal characteristics, changes in the plasma near the surface, and a passive experiment to assist in precisely calculating the distance between Earth and the Moon, the lander will have four scientific payloads. NASA is responsible for the fourth payload.
Water on Moon
Before the first Apollo landing in the 1960s, scientists had hypothesized that water might be present on the moon. The late 1960s and early 1970s samples that the Apollo crews sent back for study seemed to be dry.
When Brown University researchers used new equipment to explore those lunar samples in 2008, they discovered hydrogen inside microscopic beads of volcanic glass. A NASA instrument mounted on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft of the Indian Space Research Organisation found water on the moon’s surface in 2009.
A record of lunar volcanoes, material brought to Earth by comets and asteroids, and the formation of the oceans could all be found in pockets of old water ice, which is of interest to scientists.
