Pramod Bhargava
Chandrayaan-1 was the first in the world to discover the presence of water on the Moon. Chandrayaan-2 was an extension of this mission, which was not completely successful, so Chandrayaan-3 will fly to fill that shortcoming. The cost of this campaign will be around ten thousand crore rupees. The hardware and technology related equipment associated with the campaign have been tested.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has started preparations to send Chandrayaan-3 to the south pole of the Moon in August this year. America and Israel will also support India in this campaign. America has been successful in bringing samples of the soil there by landing on the moon many times in the past. Israel has also tried unsuccessfully to land a spacecraft on the Moon. For the first time, the American space organization NASA has announced to send an independent spacecraft to the South Pole. The main objective of sending Chandrayaan-3 to the South Pole is to find out the availability of water there, because the speculations about setting up human settlements on the moon without water are baseless.
India had launched Chandrayaan-2 on 3 January 2019. But this campaign was not completely successful. Despite this, the orbiter installed from this vehicle is continuously sending pictures while orbiting the moon. Therefore, the flight of Chandrayaan-3 is also of light category. If the flight is successful, a rover will walk some distance on the surface of the moon to collect data and send pictures of surface movements to ISRO through the old orbiter. If India achieves this goal, it will become the fourth country in the world to achieve such a feat. At present, America, Russia and China have been the only successful countries. Apart from India, Japan and the European Space Agency have also made similar unsuccessful attempts on the Moon.
Remember, Chandrayaan-1, sent in 2008, discovered the presence of water on the Moon for the first time in the world. Chandrayaan-2 was an extension of this mission, which was not completely successful, so Chandrayaan-3 will fly to fill that shortcoming. The cost of this campaign will be around ten thousand crore rupees. The hardware and technology related equipment associated with the campaign have been tested. The lander and rover will be tested through a special soil called ‘Anathorsite’ from Salem district of Tamil Nadu.
This soil has been made artificial moon-like surface and crater at Chillakere Vigyan Nagar in Chitradurga, Karnataka. The vehicle system is being checked with sensors and disaster equipment fitted in it. Taking lessons from the failure of Chandrayaan-2, minor changes have also been made in the thruster and design of the lander. The purpose of sending the vehicle to the South Pole is important because this place has remained mysterious for the world’s space scientists till now. The rocks here are said to be more than one million years old. The study of these rocks can help in understanding the origin of the universe.
Actually, the process of sending vehicles to the planets present in space is very complicated and full of doubts, the result of which we have seen in the failure of Chandrayaan-2. If the angle of descent is slightly degraded or if the balance of motion is slightly shaken, then any lunar mission is either destroyed by going to the moon, or it goes astray somewhere in space. It can neither be discovered, nor can it be controlled and brought back to the target. When the US sent satellites in the 1960s, the first six launches were unsuccessful.
The undivided Soviet Union carried out twenty-nine missions between 1959 and 1976. Nine of these were unsuccessful. In 1959, Russia gave impetus to this competition by sending the first satellite. Since then, there have been sixty-seven lunar missions, but no significant information has been collected about the Moon. The result of this competition was that the then President of America, John F. Kennedy, had resolved to send a man to the Moon and on July 20, 1969, America had achieved this historic achievement by landing scientists Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin on the Moon. .
India’s Chandrayaan-1 and American NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have recently sent such information, which indicates the availability of all-round water on the Moon. Water on the surface of the Moon is not spread over any one land area, but is spread everywhere. From earlier information, it was only known that there is a large amount of water at the polar latitude of the Moon. Apart from this, the amount of water on the moon also increases and decreases according to the days. One day of the Moon is equal to twenty-nine and twenty-nine days of Earth.
According to the article published in the ‘Nature Geoscience Journal’, with the knowledge of the origin of water on the Moon, new ways of using it will be found. There will be new research to make this water potable. Efforts will also be made to create a breathable environment by decomposing it into hydrogen and oxygen. This water will also be decomposed and used as rocket fuel.
In fact, Indian Chandrayaan-1 has such special cameras and spectrometers, which are sending pictures and data of the geographical location of the Moon’s landmass, mineral resources and chemical components. This Chandrayaan has taken with it six instruments from other countries as well. NASA has sent two probes, one of which is sending images related to the research of icy water in the deep polar regions of the Moon. Bulgaria has sent Radiation Dose Monitor (Radam) in the vehicle with the help of India. This instrument is continuously sending data related to the calculation of radiation levels on the surface of the Moon.
Sweden and Japan have partnered to send an analyzer, which is assessing the effect of the solar wind on the Moon. Britain has sent an X-ray spectrometer which is engaged in the search for mineral resources in the Moon’s land. Along with them, Germany has also sent an ultraviolet spectrometer to investigate the properties of minerals present on the Moon, in partnership with India. In this way, a total of eleven such special instruments are attached in this vehicle, which are engaged in the search of habitable conditions for human beings from the Moon’s land, climate and its earth.
For humans to live on any planet, it is necessary that the distance of the Sun from that planet is such that the surface temperature there is capable of maintaining water in liquid form. The analysis of the water data sent by Chandrayaan-1 has raised the hope of finding hydroxyl in water. The hydroxyl binds immediately to another compound. To live on any planet, it is also necessary that the temperature there is neither very hot nor cold. Similarly, the size of the planet should be according to the mass of the Earth, otherwise gravity can come in the form of a problem.
However, for now, only the expectations are being worked out. The journey of future space travel is very long and is also associated with possibilities and fears. Only those who are scouring the infinite universe can reach places where the skeptics and the pessimists cannot even think of reaching. Therefore, there is a need to welcome Chandrayaan-3 and manned Gaganyaan missions.
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