Syllabus: Space technology Pragyan rover has confirmed the presence of sulphur on the moon’s surface, near its south pole. The Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument aboard the rover has made the first-ever in-situ measurements on the elemental composition of the lunar surface near the south pole. The LIBS is a …
Read More »As Pragyan digs deep into moon, scientists at a VSSC lab turn their gaze to solar wind
Syllabus: Space technology Context: Aditya-L1 mission, meant to study the sun, lifts off in September. First space-based Indian mission to study the sun from a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the sun-earth system. XL variant of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) to place the Aditya-L1 …
Read More »ISRO releases graph of temperature variation of topsoil in lunar South Pole
Context: ISRO released a graph of the temperature variation on the lunar surface measured by the Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) payload measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the South Pole A temperature probe equipped with a controlled penetration mechanism capable of reaching a depth of 10 …
Read More »Why did Chandrayaan-3 land on the near side of the moon?
Syllabus: Space technology Near side refers to the portion of the moon visible to us (about 60%). It is always the same side that is visible from Earth because the moon takes the same time to rotate about its axis as it does to circle around the Earth. The ‘new …
Read More »Chandrayaan 3
Syllabus: Space technology With Vikram, the lander module of Chandrayaan-3, successfully landing on the surface of the moon on Wednesday, the focus has now moved to the rover in its belly, Pragyan. The rover will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface on the move. The Pragyan rover …
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