A look at Chandrayaan-3's findings so far on Moon’s South Pole

The Chandrayaan-3 Lander Module safely landed on the Moon's South Pole on August 23. After this historic success by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Pragyan Rover has been making observations to uncover lunar mysteries at the South Pole. The mission had three goals. Two of them have been achieved, firstly the soft landing in the South Pole of the Moon and successfully putting the rover on the Moon's surface. The third goal, which involves performing experiments directly on the moon, is currently in progress.


Here are some interesting findings from the south pole region on the Moon by Chadrayaan-3 so far:

1. Temperature of the moon’s South Pole: On August 27, ISRO published a graph detailing the changes in temperature on the moon's surface. A senior scientist at the space agency was surprised by the unexpectedly high-temperature readings on the lunar surface. ISRO provided an update, explaining that they used a tool called ChaSTE, located on Chandrayaan-3's Vikram Lander, to measure the temperature profile of the soil around the pole on the moon. This was done to gain insights into how the moon's surface reacts to heat. Speaking to news agency PTI, ISRO scientist B H M Darukesha mentioned they had assumed that the temperature might range from around 20 to 30 degrees Celsius on the surface, but it's actually 70 degrees Celsius, which is much higher than what they initially anticipated.


2. Crater Encounter: On August 27, while exploring the Moon's surface, the Chandrayaan-3 rover encountered a challenge in the form of a 4-meter-wide crater. In an update from ISRO, it was revealed that the crater was actually situated 3 meters ahead of where they initially thought. To handle the situation, ISRO directed the Rover to backtrack and informed that it was now on a different path, proceeding safely.


3. Elements Detected: Moving forward to August 30, the Pragyan Rover's Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope found some interesting elements on the moon's surface near the South Pole. They confirmed the presence of sulphur, and they also found elements like Aluminium, Calcium, Iron, Chromium, Titanium, Manganese, Silicon and Oxygen. The scientists are still on the lookout for Hydrogen.

Right now, the Rover is facing a time constraint, kind of like it's “racing against time”.

Nilesh M Desai, who is in charge of the Space Applications Centre, explained on Sunday that they have a total of just 14 days for this whole mission, which equals just one day on the moon, ANI reported. So far, they've used up four of those days. He emphasised saying that it's really important for them to make the most of the remaining ten days by doing as many experiments and research as possible. He also said that all the ISRO scientists are putting in their efforts.