Chandrayaan's focus now on collecting data, analysis later: Research lab
Shubhadeep Choudhury
New Delhi, August 25
Even as the Pragyan rover traversed a distance of about eight metres on the lunar surface today, all those looking forward eagerly for findings of India’s third lunar mission — Chandrayaan-3 — will have to wait a bit longer.
PM to meet ISRO scientists today
PM Narendra Modi will visit Bengaluru on Saturday to congratulate the ISRO team on successful Chandrayaan-3 mission.
There are five payloads – two aboard the Pragyan rover and three aboard the Vikram lander. The focus is on collecting as much data as possible.
Anil Bhardwaj, Director of the Ahmedabad-based Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), said analysis of data sent by the instruments “would take a while”. Bhardwaj said with the mission life of the rover and lander being 14 days only, the time would be entirely spent on collection of scientific data.
Pak hails moon landing
Chandrayaan’s moon landing is a great scientific achievement for which ISRO deserves appreciation, says Zahira Baloch, spokesperson, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The data collected is being sent to the Mission Control Centre in Bengaluru using the Deep Space Network of ISRO at Byalalu.
The PRL Director said the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope, two instruments aboard Pragyan, would help in investigation with regard to extent of water that could be present in the shadowy craters of the lunar south pole. The PRL, affiliated to the Department of Space, developed the APXS. It also developed Chandra’s Surface Thermo-Physical Experiment (ChaSTE) in collaboration with Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
Bhardwaj said since lunar soil was “thermally insulated”, it had remained a mystery how heat travelled in the layers underneath the surface of the moon. ChaSTE will try to unearth this mystery, he said.
