Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi: India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission has marked a milestone in lunar exploration with its Pragyan rover making significant discoveries on the Moon’s south pole. The Vikram lander, part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, successfully deployed the Pragyan rover, which has since been exploring and analyzing the lunar surface near its landing site.
According to a report by NDTV, the Pragyan rover has observed small rock fragments scattered around the rim, wall slopes, and floor of small craters in the southern high-latitude landing area. Over the course of a single lunar day, Pragyan traveled approximately 103 meters, collecting valuable data that corroborates earlier studies suggesting a gradual coarsening of rock fragments within the lunar regolith.
Weighing 27 kilograms, the Pragyan rover is equipped with cameras and instruments to analyze lunar soil. It proudly displays the ISRO logo and the Indian tricolour flag on the lunar surface, symbolizing India’s achievements in space exploration.
Significant Findings by the Pragyan Rover:
As the rover moved roughly 39 meters west of the landing site, named Shiv Shakti point by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the number and size of rock fragments increased. A nearby crater, about 10 meters in diameter, is considered a potential source of these rock fragments. A paper presented at the International Conference on Planets, Exoplanets, and Habitability in Ahmedabad earlier this year suggested that this crater had excavated and redistributed the rock fragments around the landing site. These fragments had been repeatedly buried and exposed by the lunar regolith overturning mechanism and small craters.
Two of the rock fragments showed signs of degradation, indicating exposure to space weathering. This insight into the lunar surface composition and weathering processes is crucial for future lunar exploration missions.
Recently, ISRO chief S Somanath announced that the upcoming Chandrayaan-4 mission aims to return a lunar sample to Earth from the ‘Shiv Shakti’ point. ISRO officials confirmed that Chandrayaan-3 successfully met all its mission objectives, including demonstrating a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, the rover’s ability to traverse the moon, and conducting in-situ scientific experiments with the payloads of both the rover and the lander.
On August 23, 2023, India made history with the Chandrayaan-3 mission by becoming the first country to land near the lunar south pole and the fourth globally to achieve a soft landing on the moon, following the US, the former Soviet Union, and China.
