Announcement of Opportunity for Chandrayaan-3 Data

Why in News?

Recently, ISRO issued an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for scientific analysis and utilisation of data from all experiments of Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover.

• Chandrayaan-3 – It is the world’s first mission to soft-land near the lunar South Pole.
• It was launched in 2023 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
• Components of Chandrayan 3 - It consists of an indigenous lander module, a propulsion module and a rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for inter-planetary missions.

To know more about Chandrayan 3, click here.

• Data Collected – Scientific payloads gathered data on several aspects of the lunar environment.
• Thermal Properties – The ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment) payload recorded the temperature profile of the Moon's topsoil, extending from the surface down to a depth of 10 cm.
• Elemental and Mineral Composition – The LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope) and APXS (Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer) on the Pragyan rover analysed the chemical composition of the lunar surface.
• It confirmed the presence of elements such as sulphur, iron, aluminium, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen near the landing site.
• Lunar Seismic Activity – Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity on the Vikram lander recorded seismic signals, including over 250 seismic events
• Near-Surface Plasma – Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere-Langmuir Probe measured the density of plasma (ions and electrons) near the lunar surface and its variations over time.
• Announcement of Opportunity (AO)  - ISRO issued the AO to enhance the scientific outcome of the Chandrayaan-3 mission by involving the national scientific community in data analysis.
• Objective - To enable scientific analysis and utilisation of data from all experiments conducted by the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover.
• Eligibility – It is open to all faculty and researchers from recognised academia, research institutions, universities, colleges and government organisations of India.

Reference

The Hindu| Study of Chandrayaan-3 Lander Data