On 23 August 2023, Chandrayaan 3 land on the south pole of the Moon and became the first country in India to make world record to land the dark side of the Moon. Chandrayaan 3 also made two major discoveries that we are not aware of.
14 Days of Chandrayaan 3 on Moon
One day of the moon is equal to 14 days of our earth and one night is also equal to 14 days. When ISRO landed Chandrayaan 3 on the dark side of the moon, it was morning time on the moon, which means that Pragyan Rover of Chandrayaan 3 could easily stay on the dark side of the moon for 14 days. That’s because Chandrayaan 3’s Praghyan rover and Vikram lander were fitted with solar panels that powered them up to sunlight.
This was the biggest achievement of Chandrayaan 3 because many countries had tried to land on the south pole of the moon before but they had failed. When Chandrayaan 3 was about to land, 2 days before that, Russia’s Luna 25 was supposed to land on the dark side of the moon, but Luna 25 collided with the surface of the moon and crashed.
The dark side of the moon is the one that we don’t see because the moon is tidily locked from the earth, due to which we see the side of the moon which we have been seeing since the beginning. One lunar day is equal to 14 Earth days, which is why Chandrayaan 3’s mission plan was kept for 14 days. In these fourteen days, Chandrayaan 3 made many discoveries, but among them 2 major discoveries are also included.
ISRO turns off Chandrayaan 3
Moon gets sunlight for only 1 day (14 days according to Earth) and then it gets dark again the next day. Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover were not supposed to work in the dark, so ISRO put Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover in sleep mode on September 4 to check all instruments and put them in sleep mode later on September 21 or 22. When the day starts again on the moon, it will charge and turn on again. When the day started again on the moon ISRO again sent commands to Pragyan Rover but Pragyan Rover did not turn on.
What Chandrayaan 3 Fail or Success?
From 21st September to 22nd September after thousands of efforts of ISRO, Chandrayaan 3 is not on yet ISRO is sending many demands to Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover of Chandrayaan 3 but ISRO is facing failure. Many people here are saying that Chandrayaan 3 has failed but it is not so because if you remember this mission of ISRO was only for 14 days only in these 14 days ISRO had to find out the secrets hidden on the moon. Chandrayaan 3 and ISRO did not fail here because it worked for full 14 days and made huge discoveries. If Chandrayaan-3 goes on, it would be a check-bond for ISRO, but in this Chandrayaan-3 and ISRO fail.
The reason for the failure of this mission is not the darkness on the dark side of the moon, but the cold there. When the sun light on the dark side of the moon, the temperature of the dark side of the moon reaches 70 degrees and when the sun does not sun light on the dark side of the moon, the temperature of the dark side of the moon becomes -200 degrees. At such a temperature, the battery on Chandrayaan 3’s Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover was completely destroyed.
ISRO checked this mission before sending it to the moon. Chandrayaan 3’s Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover tested the battery at -40 degrees, and at that time their battery was working perfectly, so ISRO and NASA were a little confident that this Rover and Lander would be able to on and work again. But it didn’t happen.
How Possible Water on Moon
Chandrayaan-1 detected evidence of water on the Moon’s surface. After which NASA sent its missions, it was found that there is water on the south pole of the moon but in the form of ice, but the surprising thing is that one day the temperature on the moon was -200 degrees when it was night and the other day the temperature was 70 degrees. Why is the water not melting at such a temperature when the sun shines?
On the moon, the sun does not rise from the top, but from the side of the moon, due to which the sunlight does not go inside the craters on the moon. NASA and ISRO have claimed them to be water in the craters.
Chandrayaan 3 find Mysterious thing on Moon
Chandrayaan 3’s Vikram Lander carries an instrument called ChaSTE, which stands for Chandra’s Surface Thermo-Physical Experiment, to study the surface temperature of the Moon. Vikram Lander began to drill into the surface of the moon with a drilling machine. As soon as the lander put ChaSTE into the hole, and as soon as ChaSTE studied the surface of the moon, a very mysterious thing was found which was very unsolved. You can see in the picture below.
Here you are looking at a graph showing Depth (mm) on Y-axis and Temperature on X-axis. Now you see that when ChaSTE was 20mm above the surface of the moon, the temperature of the surface of the moon was 54 degrees and as soon as ChaSTE touched the surface of the moon, the temperature of the surface of the moon rose to 48 degrees and dropped by about 8 degrees.
Now, as ChaSTE went deeper into the lunar surface, the temperature inside the lunar surface also started to drop rapidly. When ChaSTE went 80mm deep into the lunar surface, the temperature inside the lunar surface dropped to -10. 80mm is about the same distance as the first finger of your hand.
This discovery also made the scientist think. Because it was such a short distance that anyone would have been surprised. The temperature dropped so fast in such a short distance. When the temperature drops below 0 degrees, water turns into ice. If you put your finger in that hole, your finger will also freeze.
One thing is clear here that water does not exist on the surface of the moon because the temperature of the surface of the moon would have increased to 50 degrees, due to which the water would evaporate into steam. But the temperature inside the moon’s surface drops to -10 degrees, which is why these craters can contain water.
