Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan rover makes new discovery on Moon’s south pole
India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission has made important discoveries about the lunar surface on the moon’s south pole, according to a new analysis of data obtained from its Pragyan rover’s exploration. These discoveries, which shed light on the distribution and origin of rock fragments in the region, represent a significant advance in our understanding of lunar geology.
The rover of India’s lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 had an interesting encounter on the lunar surface near its landing site. According to the recently obtained findings, the Pragyan rover deployed and controlled by the Vikram lander observed small rock fragments distributed around the rim, wall slopes and bottom of small craters at the southern high latitude landing site.
The rover covered a distance of about 103 metres on the lunar surface in one lunar day.
These results could prove to be a significant step in lunar exploration as they support previous studies that suggest a gradual thickening of rock fragments in the inner part of the lunar regolith.
The 27-kg Pragyaan rover – which was carried on the lower side of the Vikram lander – was equipped with cameras and instruments to analyse the moon’s soil. It also carried the ISRO logo and the Indian tricolour to the moon’s surface.
According to the findings, when the Pragyaan rover reached about 39 metres towards the west of the landing site, Shiva Shakti Bindu – the name given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Chandrayaan-3 landing area – the number and size of the rock fragments increased. It said a possible source of the rock fragments could be a crater of about 10 metres in diameter.
This crater is thought to have excavated and redistributed rock fragments west of the landing site, which were buried several times by the lunar regolith overturning mechanism and eventually exposed by the small craters seen by the Pragyaan rover.. Earlier this year in Ahmedabad, the paper was presented at the International Conference on Planets, Exoplanets, and Habitability.
It said two of the rock fragments showed evidence of erosion, meaning they were affected by space weathering.
