Rover Pragyan has started exploring the moon’s dark side and sending reports back to ISRO. India’s space mission Chandrayaan-3 made history by making a soft landing near the lunar South Pole – a feat that no country has been able to achieve before. Five days since August 23 marked by accurate touchdown, Vikram’s eight scientific payloads are active.
The first important finding has emerged from ChaSTE, Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical experiment. The experiment was developed by Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad in collaboration with Space Physics Laboratory (SPL), Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) to evaluate thermal properties of lunar topsoil in the polar region.
First Observations from Lunar South Pole
The moon’s south pole is uneven and full of craters. Regolith, a layer of debris, with varying thickness covers the southern region. As per the latest understanding, the fluffy surface may not be a good conductor of heat. According to space scientists, it is important to study the varying characters of lunar soil to plan extended human civilization on the moon in near future.
Scientists have developed 3D models with available data of the moon’s thermal environment. The upper layer of the moon’s surface is a few cm thick and exhibits low thermal conductivity. Below the upper layer, thermal conductivity is pretty high, implying that temperature is stable after a few cms of depth and no longer exhibits a sharp decline. However, the picture of thermal conditions on the moon’s surface is yet to be complete. The observation by ChaSTE will help validating the existing models as well as provide new insights with precise quantitative measurements.
ISRO has shared a graph illustrating the temperature variations from 0 to 50°C on the lunar surface, according to what the rover has recorded at different depths. However, it is only preliminary data and scientists claim it will continue to vary according to the time of the day on the moon.
“The detailed observations are underway. But this data confirms that our scientific instruments are working well on the moon and collecting data as required,” Dr Anil Bhardwaj, Director of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, told News18.
Chandrayaan-3’s Lander vikram has inserted a 10cm probe equipped with 10 temperature sensors into the lunar soil to collect data and measure the temperature variation at each depth
“The probe is almost like a thermometer inserted into the lunar surface. Our focus is to understand how heat is conducted in the lunar surface as we go from top surface to the bottom,” explained the senior scientist with years of research in solar system exploration and planetary and space sciences. Dr Anil Bhardwaj says data gathered by Chandrayaan-3 will help in planning future lunar missions. His team helped design the experiments on Chandrayaan-3 lander Vikram.
