India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission continues to make exciting discoveries on the Moon. The Pragyan rover has uncovered a 160-km-wide, ancient impact crater near the landing site, providing valuable insights into the early geological evolution of the lunar surface.
India commemorated its inaugural National Space Day on August 23, 2023, marking the one-year anniversary of the Chandrayaan-3 mission’s successful soft landing on the Moon’s south pole. This achievement, a testament to the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) prowess, solidified India’s position as the first nation to achieve this feat. The day also celebrated the groundbreaking discoveries made by the mission, including the detection of sulfur and the measurement of lunar surface temperature, furthering our understanding of Earth’s celestial neighbor.
India’s first National Space Day, celebrated on August 23rd, marks the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon. This day highlights the significant role of India’s space program in advancing Earth system sciences and providing critical services for national development. The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) leverages satellite data for weather forecasting, ocean monitoring, disaster management, and more, ensuring India’s ability to address global challenges of the 21st century.
Data collected by India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission provides further evidence for the widely accepted theory that the Moon once had a molten surface, known as a ‘magma ocean’. The analysis of lunar soil samples, gathered by the Pragyan rover at the Moon’s south pole, suggests a uniform composition consistent with the ‘magma ocean’ hypothesis.
