Chandrayaan-3 lander accomplished a ‘soft landing’ on the Moon’s south pole.
The spot where the Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander made a soft landing would be named Shiv Shakti Point.
The site where the Chandrayaan-2 lander crash-landed on the Moon's surface in 2019 would be known as Tiranga Point.
August 23, the day the Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down on the lunar surface, would be celebrated as ‘National Space Day’.
Chandrayaan-3 had 3 objectives: o Accomplished:
✓ Demonstration of a Safe and Soft Landing on the Lunar Surface
✓ Demonstration of Rover roving on the moon.
Underway: Conducting in-situ scientific experiments. (The lander and the rover, with a mission life of one Lunar day (14Earth days), have scientific payloads to conduct experiments on the lunar surface.) Chandrayaan-3 successfully underwent a ‘hop experiment’: On command, it fired the engines, elevated itself by about 40 cm as expected and landed safely.
The success of this ‘kick-start’ experiment raises hopes for future missions such as sample return missions or human missions.
Key Findings:
Temperature: Chandra's Surface Thermo-physical Experiment (ChaSTE) payload onboard Vikram Lander measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil to understand the thermal behaviour of the Moon's surface. o It was believed that the temperature could be around 20 degrees centigrade to 30 degrees centigrade on the surface, but it is 70 degrees centigrade.
Elements on the moon: Laser-induced breakdown Spectroscope instrument onboard 'Pragyan' rover‘unambiguously confirmed’ the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface near the south pole. Other elements like Aluminum(Al),Calcium(Ca),Iron(Fe),Chromium(Cr),Titanium(Ti),Manganese(Mn),Silicon(Si), and Oxygen (O) were also detected.
Thin plasma: The ‘Langmuir probe’ (an instrument that measures the properties of plasmas) finds that there is thin plasma on the surface of the moon. The discovery signifies that radio waves can easily pass through space, an important feature for communication between lunar missions.
Natural seismic activity: Recording from the Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) payload indicates a possibility of a quake on the moon, but its exact nature is currently under investigation.
Crater: Chandrayaan-3 Rover identified a 4-meter diameter crater on the moon’s surface.
Please follow the news in relation to Chandrayaan-3 as there could be more developments soon.
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