“India is on the moon,” said Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
On Aug. 23, 2023, India made history when the country’s Chandrayaan-3 space mission landed near the south pole of the moon, which has not been much explored yet. This monumental event marks India as the fourth country to ever successfully land a spacecraft on the moon, after the former Soviet Union, the US and China.
Originally launched on July 14 of the same year, India’s lunar lander traveled the 384,400 km between the Earth and the moon with three main parts: a lander called Vikram, a rover called Pragyan, and a propulsion module.
The goal was to have Pragyan, the rover, traverse the moon surface for about two weeks, taking pictures and experimenting on the geology and origins of the Earth. While landing on the southern pole of the moon has proven difficult, exploring this side of the moon may provide significant information. In particular, the water ice deposits could be converted into drinkable water or used to extract oxygen and fuel, which would be beneficial for future missions.
A probe on the Vikram lander collected data from the moon’s topsoil as well as from a depth up to 4 inches below the surface, which displayed an abrupt difference between the temperatures presented just above and below the surface in comparison to the actual surface. While it is already known for the moon to have extreme temperatures, the data showed that from just going 3 inches below the surface, the temperature measured dropped from 60 C to -10 C. This discovery in temperature variation supports the idea that the moon’s soil is a good insulator, which means it could become natural insulation for potential space colonizations in the future.
Another important discovery is the variety of chemicals found on the moon’s south pole surface by a laser detector mounted onto the rover; one significant chemical found was sulfur. Although the awareness of sulfur on the moon is not new, the presence of sulfur on the surface as opposed to within a mineral or part of a crystal, advances human’s understanding of the moon.
"Sulphur comes usually from volcanoes so this will add to our knowledge of how the Moon was formed, how it evolved and its geography,” Mila Mitra, former NASA scientist and co-founder of Stem and Space, said to BBC news.
In early Sept, the ISRO put the space rover and lander into sleep mode, hopefully waiting until the next lunar day begins at around Sept 22 when they will awaken again. This is due to the fact that their batteries need solar energy to charge, thus allowing them to function.
However, India’s space missions do not end with Chandrayaan-3. On Sept 2, India launched their Aditya-L1, and it embarked on its 110-day journey to Lagrange point 1. Carrying seven payloads, the spacecraft’s goal is to arrive at Lagrange point 1 in order to comprehensively study the outer atmosphere of the Sun. Lagrange point 1 (L1) lies 1 million miles from Earth, inside Earth’s orbit but partway between the planet and the sun. At this location, the gravitational force of two different celestial bodies–in this case, Earth and the Sun–are in equilibrium with each other. Due to the equilibrium reached, Aditya-L1 will be able to remain gravitationally stable with an uninterrupted view of the Sun.
Looking to the future of India’s new goals, the country’s Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, announced his desire for projects such as establishing an Indian Space Station (Bharatiya Antariksha Station) by 2035 and sending the first Indian to land on the moon by 2040.
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