Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram detects ‘natural’ movement on lunar surface

Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander, which is conducting experiments on the lunar surface, has detected a “natural” seismic event on the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation said on Thursday.

ISRO also said that the seismic activity-detecting equipment on the Chandrayaan-3 lander also managed to record the vibrations taking place due to the movements of the mission’s Pragyan rover and other payloads.

 

“Instrument for the Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) payload on Chandrayaan 3 Lander — the first Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology-based instrument on the moon — has recorded the movements of Rover and other payloads,” ISRO said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“It has recorded an event, appearing to be a natural one, on August 26, 2023. The source of this event is under investigation,” ISRO also said. According to the ISRO, ILSA’s primary objective is to measure ground vibrations generated by natural quakes, impacts, and artificial events.

Earlier, the space agency announced that another device present onboard Vikram — Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive Ionosphere and Atmosphere — had made the first-ever measurements of the plasma particles present near the Moon’s surface in the lunar South Pole region, where the Chandrayaan-3 mission landed last week.

 

The initial assessment of the data collected indicates that the plasma near the lunar surface is relatively sparse, ISRO said.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission, which successfully landed on the moon on August 23, has been conducting various experiments to better understand the lunar South Pole region.

Vikram, the Chandrayaan 3 lander near the lunar south pole, recorded a seismic an event, appearing to be a natural one, on August 26. The source of this event is under investigation, ISRO said. The sensitive equipment also recorded the movements of the rover Pragyan on the moon.

Meanwhile, the RAMBHA-LP load on Vikram indicated that plasma —ionized gas — was sparsely present. ISRO said the “Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive Ionosphere and Atmosphere – Langmuir Probe (RAMBHA-LP) payload onboard Chandrayaan-3 had made first-ever measurements of the near-surface lunar plasma environment over the south polar region.

ISRO also released a video of the Chandrayaan-3 rover rotating in search of a safe route. The rotation was captured by a lander imager camera.

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