In another failed endeavour to the Lunar South Pole, the robotic Luna-25 spacecraft appeared to have crashed into the moon’s surface after an off-orbital adjustment, the space agency Roscosmos said on Sunday.
Earlier, three other lunar south-pole landing attempts in the past 4 years — by India (Chandrayaan-2), Japan and an Israeli nonprofit– failed right before the last few minutes of descending to the surface, even after successfully manoeuvring in orbit around the moon.
advertisement
So, what makes the soft landing near the lunar south pole incredibly difficult compared to the lunar equator?
India Today’s OSINT (Open Source Investigations) team delves into the geological phenomena near Chandrayaan-3’s proposed primary landing site (PLS).
The south pole of the Moon’s rugged terrain lies in the shade of perpetual darkness for billions of years with plummeting temperatures- where researchers had previously discovered the presence of water ice.
In 2009, Chandrayaan -1’s moon impact probe and the hyper spectral imaging camera along with NASA’s moon mineralogy mapper announced the presence of water molecules in the lunar poles.
For the purpose of understanding the landing region, we spoke to one of the researchers of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Gujarat, founded by Vikram Sarabhai.
The researchers of PRL shed light on a recently active seismic lobate scarp triggering shallow moonquakes near to the proposed PLS of Chandrayaan-3. By closely analysing the geolocation of the PLS in the presence of craters and scarps, our team decodes what it means for India’s ambitious moon mission.
So, what are Scarps?
Half a century ago, the Apollo astronauts left transient seismometers on the lunar surface. They discovered that the moon was alive and kicking. Some tremors deep below the surface were likely caused by Earth’s gravitational pull. Others were vibrations from meteorite impacts.
These are shallow moonquakes, just a few miles beneath the moon’s surface. But unlike the other categories of quake, these convulsions couldn’t be satisfactorily explained then.
Several years down the line, researchers concluded that such quakes were triggered across myriad young faults by a combination of escaping internal heat and Earth’s gravitational pull.
These faults belong to a category known as thrust faults, in which a geological block slides upward against gravity when the surrounding region is being squashed. The moon’s thrust faults are a sign that the whole orb is contracting as it loses internal heat, cools and shrinks.
The lobate scarps were formed when the lunar crust is pushed together due to the contraction of the Moon’s surface. This causes the near-surface materials to break forming a thrust fault or lobate scarp.
The presence of such lobate scarps and its potential consequences on the proposed landing site of Chandrayaan-3 has been brought into light in a research paper only recently by the Planetary Sciences Division of The Physical Research Laboratory, which is a National Research Institute for Space and allied sciences, supported by Department of Space, Government of India and headquartered in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
The study has presented evidence indicating the existence of a roughly “~58 km long segment of lobate scarp situated at an average horizontal distance of ~6 km in the west of the proposed primary landing site” of Chandrayaan-3.
Recent Moonquakes Near Chandrayaan’s Proposed Landing Site
ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 lander-rover-based mission is proposed to land in the plateau between two craters Manzinus and Boguslawsky and a third Simpelious in an area between 68 and 70° S and 31 and 33° E coordinates near the moon’s south pole.
Additionally, an alternate landing site has also been proposed in the west of Moretus crater (∼114 km diameter; coordinates: 70.6° S, 6.2° W), within an area between 68 and 70° S and 16 and 18° W.
At the mountainous south pole, the terrain is difficult and dangerous with major craters and extended lobate scarps which have remained in perpetual darkness for billions of years due to minimal sunlight, where temperatures can plummet below –300 degrees Fahrenheit.
But it holds promise for unprecedented deep space scientific discoveries that includes humanity's eternal search for water ice on the moon's unexplored zone. Also, India's 2008 mission, Chandrayaan-1, and NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter observed the presence of billions of gallons of water ice on the surface of the Moon.
Besides, extremely cold temperatures in the south pole also infer communication challenges and indicate the fact that anything that's found in this region would have remained frozen and preserved for millions of years.
Ice on the moon's surface can act as a game-changer for future space exploration as it leads to water and boosts the scope of long-term lunar inhabitation and establishing lunar bases. It could also help astronauts produce oxygen and rocket fuel and aid in interplanetary space travel beyond the moon.
Observations:
The Chandrayaan-3 proposed landing site has two scarps in its vicinity as per the study and their chronological and seismic investigation is crucial to assess the safety and the possible hazards to the lander/rover of the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
The study says that based on the analysis of the potential ground shaking caused by the shallow moonquake and boulder-fall trails, it appears that the landing site is safe from seismic hazards.
Scarp 1 is a 58 km long segment of scarps situated at an average horizontal distance of ∼6 km in the west of the PLS. Scarp 2 is a 18 km long segment of scarps situated on the floor of Boguslawsky J crater, which is located about 78 km southwest of the PLS.
According to the research, the 58-km long segment has been “seismically active recently” which can trigger potential shallow moonquakes, which can in turn induce ground shaking likely related to the movements along lobate scarps, and causing boulder-falls and landslides.
Hence, it becomes imperative to figure out both the timing of the lobate scarp's formation and the extent of geologically seismic hazard potential near the landing site of Chandrayaan-3.
ILSA: ISRO’s Unique Payload
To study the measure of lunar ground acceleration and the tectonically active nature of its surface, the Chandrayaan-3 lander has a seismometer instrument for conducting Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) studies which can measure up to a range of 0.5 g over a bandwidth of 40 Hz due to shallow moonquakes.
India Today’s OSINT team spoke to one of the researchers of Physical Research Laboratory, Rishitosh K. Sinha. He sheds light on the prospect for Chandrayaan's ILSA instrument to delve into a more comprehensive study of the Moon's seismic elements.
“We have shown evidence of an 18 km long segment of lobate scarps situated at a distance of 78 km from the landing site of Chandrayaan-3 mission. If the fault is active today, it will be a great opportunity for the ILSA instrument to detect the seismic activity associated with the active fault. This will help us learn about the present-day status of seismic activity on the moon” he says.
He went on to add that, “the landing of a spacecraft cannot trigger moonquakes, boulder-falls, and landslides - as these are entirely geological processes, which are related to the geological and tectonic history of the moon.” Therefore, the paper concludes that the Chandrayaan-3 mission “might be safe from any potential seismic hazards happening currently.”
If all goes according to plan, Chandrayaan-3 is poised to achieve a historic milestone as the world's first lunar mission to execute a soft landing near the Moon's south pole. Up to this point, spacecraft have predominantly touched down either near the lunar equator or at a few degrees of latitude.
The Russian robotic Luna-25 spacecraft “ceased its existence as a result of a collision with the lunar surface,” the space agency Roscosmos said after attempts to re-establish communications failed, and the spacecraft deviated from its planned orbit. Earlier, Roscosmos published the first image of the lunar surface, taken by the Luna-25 automatic station.
The image shows the Zeeman Crater, the third-deepest crater on Moon’s southern hemisphere. Its diameter stands at about 190 km and its depth is about 8 km.
Must Watch
"soft" - Google News
August 21, 2023 at 11:35PM
https://ift.tt/ihbCOal
Understanding Chandrayaan-3 landing site: Why soft landing on Moon's dark side is difficult? - India Today
"soft" - Google News
https://ift.tt/jVlg1k9
https://ift.tt/qOI3NuM
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Understanding Chandrayaan-3 landing site: Why soft landing on Moon's dark side is difficult? - India Today"
Post a Comment