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Ice could be present at more locations right beneath the Moon's surface at the poles than previously thought, a study of data collected by the Chandrayaan-3 mission has suggested. Large, yet highly local, changes in surface temperatures can directly affect the forming of ice, and looking into these ice particles can reveal "different stories about their origin and history", lead author, Durga Prasad Karanam, Faculty, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad told PTI. This can also tell us about how ice accumulated and moved through the Moon's surface over time, which can provide insights into the natural satellite's early geologic processes, he said. The findings are published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment. The Chandrayaan-3 mission, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from Bengaluru, achieved a soft landing near the Moon's south pole on August 23, 2023. The landing site was named the 'Shiv Shakti Point' three days later on August 26. For
Landing a spacecraft on the moon has long been a series of hits and misses. Last year, a spacecraft built by Intuitive Machines through a NASA-sponsored program put the US back on the moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo program, but the lander ended up tipping on its side and operated briefly on the surface. Now another US company Firefly Aerospace on Sunday added its lunar lander to the win list, becoming the first private entity to pull off a fully successful moon landing. Both US businesses are part of NASA's effort to support commercial deliveries to the moon ahead of astronaut missions later this decade. The moon is littered with wreckage from failed landings over the years. A rundown on the moon's winners and losers: First victories The Soviet Union's Luna 9 successfully touches down on the moon in 1966, after its predecessors crash or miss the moon altogether. The U.S. follows four months later with Surveyor 1. Both countries achieve more robotic landings
Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 landed within a buried impact crater, which is around 160 km in size and approximately 4.4 km deep, and likely to be older than the South Pole Atkin (SPA) basin, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This is revealed based on analysis of images obtained by navigation cameras on Chandrayaan-3 Pragyan rover and Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter's optical high resolution camera, according to scientists from Physical Research Laboratory and ISRO, who published their study in peer-reviewed journal 'Icarus'. The Chandrayaan-3 mission with the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover landed in the high latitude highland region near the south pole of the Moon, an ISRO statement noted. The landing site is located approximately 350 km from the SPA basin rim, an ancient and the largest impact basin in the Solar System. This landing site has undergone the complex emplacement sequence of SPA basin ejecta followed by the nearby and distant impact basins and ..
India's lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 possibly landed in one of the oldest craters of the Moon, according to scientists who analysed images from the mission and satellites. The crater was formed during the Nectarian period, which dates back to 3.85 billion years and is one of the oldest time periods in the Moon's history, the team, including researchers from the Physical Research Laboratory and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ahmedabad, said. S Vijayan, an associate professor in the Planetary Sciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, told PTI, "Chandrayaan-3 landing site is a unique geological setting where no other missions have gone. The images from the mission's Pragyan rover are the first on-site ones of the Moon at this latitude. They reveal how the Moon evolved over time". A crater is formed when an asteroid crashes into the surface of a larger body like a planet or a Moon, and the displaced material is called 'ejecta'. Revealing how the Moon evolved over time
India is celebrating its first-ever National Space Day to mark the anniversary of the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 mission.Senior ISRO scientists shared their experiences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, particularly during the Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 missions.B N Ramakrishna, Director, ISRO Telemetry, Tracking & Command Network (ISTRAC) told ANI, "Chandrayaan-2 was another big mission, which we were all aiming to land, soft landing at the moon (on) South pole. So that time when Modiji had come... we had made a lot of arrangements at...The most important point, I would like to bring here is he wanted to spread the scientific knowledge to the younger generation."He recalled they had arranged for two or three children from each state to witness this landing event."So we had arranged the children from all over the India. I think from each state there were two or three students who had come to ISTRAC Bengaluru to watch this landing event... We had made good ...
As the country celebrated its first ever National Space Day commemorating the soft landing of ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 on the lunar surface on Friday, Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries H D Kumaraswamy recalled the contributions of four Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) in making India's lunar mission a success. The union minister said these CPSEs under his ministry had proudly contributed to achieving the milestone. "Four CPSEs under MHIInstrumentation Ltd. (IL), FCRI, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL), and Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT)supplied essential products that were integral to the success of Chandrayaan-3," Kumaraswamy said in a post on 'X'. He also said that the National Space Day celebration is a testament to the dedication and hard work of ISRO's scientists and engineers, and the collaborative efforts of our nation's industries. On this day a year ago, India achieved a major feat in its Space programme when its Chandrayaan-3 made a soft landing on the .