India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission has yielded a stream of significant scientific discoveries since its historic lunar south pole landing on August 23, 2023.
These breakthroughs deepened global understanding of the Moon’s geology, composition, and environment, reinforcing India’s growing prominence in space science.
WHAT DID CHANDRAYAAN-3 FIND ON THE MOON?
Perhaps the most remarkable find was the first-ever detection of sulfur at the Moon’s South Pole. The Pragyan rover, equipped with advanced spectrometers, not only confirmed sulfur, but also detected aluminum, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen at the landing site.
These chemical signatures provide new clues about lunar surface processes and support the hunt for potential water ice stores.
Another major discovery by Chandrayaan-3 involved recording natural moonquakes, a first for this region since the Apollo era.
The Vikram lander’s seismic sensors picked up unexplained tremors, confirming the moon’s tectonic activity and offering valuable data about its interior structure.
Chandrayaan-3’s mission also mapped subsurface temperatures with unprecedented detail, finding surface temperatures as high as 82C but plunging to minus 168C just 10 cm below.
Most crucially, ISRO announced that sloped regions near the south pole can maintain temperatures cold enough to support stable subsurface water ice, expanding the possibilities for future lunar resource utilization.
By analyzing rocks and soils, the rover found evidence of ancient impact events and primitive mantle materials exposed by the South Pole-Aitken Basin over 4.3 billion years ago. This rare glimpse into the Moon’s deep interior helps validate theories about its molten beginnings and subsequent evolution.
Additional highlights include the detection of low-density lunar plasma and the discovery of a 160-km-wide ancient crater, further highlighting the Moon’s dynamic geological history.
Isro also conducted a hop test with the Vikram lander, firing the engines on the Moon lifting the lander and then landing it again. The test was done, in a bid, to test system that would be required for Chandrayaan-4 mission that aims to bring back rocks and soil from the Moon.
Together, these achievements showed Chandrayaan-3’s transformative impact on lunar science, reshaping our understanding of water ice distribution, geological evolution, and potentially paving the way for future human exploration.
India’s mission has placed it among the leaders in cutting-edge planetary research, with its south pole findings guiding new scientific and exploration strategies for years to come.
India is already working on developing Chandrayaan-4 and Chandrayaan-5 missions by the end of this decade. Isro aims to land an Indian on the Moon by 2040.
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