Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
Last week, the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover successfully touched down on the lunar surface, making India the fourth nation on Earth to land successfully on the Moon, and the first to land near the south pole.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The mission, aimed at examining the composition of the lunar soil, has already achieved another first; measuring the temperature at this previously unexplored region. Since then, it has hit the jackpot in its scientific activities, analyzing the composition of the surface of the Moon.
During this busy time, the rover still managed to capture a photo of the Vikram Lander that brought it to the Moon.
The rover has so far detected sulfur, aluminum, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen. Sulfur is of particular interest to space-going nations, as it could potentially be used to make concrete.
The rover will continue its work to confirm these results. It has a planned working life of 14 days, though the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) hopes that it will continue to work beyond this.
