ISRO Logo Imprints On Moon's Surface Reveals 'Lumpy' Texture; Check Details
Date
9/24/2023 5:52:58 AM
(MENAFN- AsiaNet News) The Chandrayaan-3 rover, Pragyan, with its rear wheels adorned with the Indian national emblem and the ISRO logo, has left an intriguing mark on the lunar soil. Rather than yielding a "clear" imprint of these symbols, the lunar surface appears to be resistant, offering valuable insights into the characteristics of the lunar soil in the south pole region. This fresh information regarding the lunar soil in the south pole region, a prime target for numerous upcoming missions due to its potential for water discovery, holds significant importance for endeavors aimed at lunar habitation and establishing a sustained human presence.
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ISRO Chairman S Somanath, in a conversation with TOI, acknowledged the significance of the unclear emblem and logo imprints. He noted, "We already know it (soil) is different, but we have to find out what's making it different. The lunar soil is not acting dusty but is lumpy. This means something is binding the soil, we need to study what is binding the soil."
The imprint testing of the embossed images was conducted using lunar soil simulant (LSS), meticulously crafted by ISRO Satellite Integration and Test Establishment (Isite). Surprisingly, the LSS left clear imprints, mirroring soil samples collected by the US Apollo program from the Moon's equatorial region.
Regarding the much-anticipated revival of Vikram (the lander) and Pragyan, Somanath said, "Till now there has been no signal, but I cannot say it will not come up. We can wait the entire lunar day (14 Earth days) as there will be continuous sunlight throughout that period, which means temperature will only go up. As long as the temperature is increasing, there are chances of systems inside getting warmed up. So the systems could even wake up on the 14th day; there is no way to predict when it could happen."
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