NEW DELHI: ISRO chairman S. Somanath said on Sunday that India has the “best picture of the Moon” just days after leading the nation’s premier space agency to accomplish the most challenging feat in the entire world—landing a spacecraft on the most treacherous terrain near the lunar south pole where no one has ever gone before.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Somanath informed the press, “We have the closest depiction of the genuine regolith. They are rare commodities that aren’t found anywhere else in the globe. Nobody has images from such a close distance. They must all come to our computer facility, the Indian Spacecraft and Exploration Mission Data facility, so they will all arrive, although a little later. Scientists will then take that information and conduct extensive valuation.
The ISRO chairman commented, “Everything is working perfectly, including the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover. Five of the instruments on board the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover are in excellent condition and are operating as intended. We anticipate being able to finish all the experiments in the upcoming days, with 10 more lunar days till September 3 (of the solar calendar). There are many settings for which it must run various tests. Additionally, the rover must go around and do various studies as it must conduct mineralogical testing at various areas.
ISRO published the initial findings from the ChaSTE (Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment) instrument on the Vikram lander on Sunday. In order to comprehend the thermal behaviour of the moon’s surface, the organisation claimed it “measures the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the pole. It has a temperature probe with a controlled penetration mechanism that can pierce the surface to a depth of 10 cm. There are 10 separate temperature sensors on the probe.
The graph, which ISRO is displaying, “illustrates the temperature variations of the lunar surface/near-surface at various depths, as recorded during the probe’s penetration,” the organisation claims. This profile of the lunar south pole is the first of its kind. In-depth observations are being made. A team led by the Space Physics Laboratory (SPL) in collaboration with PRL, Ahmedabad designed the payload.
“For Gaganyaan too, we have the same team,” Somanath remarked in reference to the mission’s development. No Aditya team, Chandrayaan team, or Gaganyaan team exists for me. Our team is the same. They’ll carry out their innovative work. We aim to perform better with the Gaganyaan mission with this confidence (in the Moon mission’s success),” he stated.
