'Like tasting cooked veggie': Scientist on Chandrayaan confirming sulphur, oxygen on moon
Chandrayaan 3 confirms oxygen: Remote sensing is done from about 100km away but Chandrayaan 3s findings are straight from the ground, a scientist said.
Chandrayaan 3 on Tuesday confirmed the presence of sulphur and oxygen on the moon apart from many other elements like aluminium, calcium etc. Explaining the significance of the finding, scientist TV Venkateswaran told news agency ANI that it is like tasting cooked vegetables to confirm whether they are fully cooked. "We can see and tell if the vegetables are cooked from a distance. But we won't accept that. We will take a piece and taste it to see if it is properly cooked. In the same way, you need to land on the moon at least in a few places, look for this data and see whether this data matches the remote sensing data. If they match then our confidence in the remote sensing data will be very high," Venkateswaran said.
Explaining the significance of the finding of the Chandrayaan 3 vis-a-vis remote sensing data which previous missions procured, Venkateswaran said, "This provides the ground routine. Already orbiters like Chandrayaan 1, Chandryaan 2 and American orbiters have done remote sensing and mapped the minerals on the surface of the moon. But remote sensing takes place roughly about 100 kms away."
List of elements Chandrayaan 3 confirmed on the moon
Chandrayaan 3 shared the minerals it found on the lunar surface. The list includes:
Aluminum (Al)
Sulphur (S)
Calcium (Ca)
Iron (Fe)
Chromium (Cr)
Titanium (Ti)
Manganese (Mn)
Silicon (Si)
Oxygen (O).
This is the first-ever in-situ measurement of the elements present on the moon near the south pole. Chadrayaan 3 unambiguously confirmed the presence of aluminium, calcium, iron and these elements which was not feasible by the instruments onboard the orbiters. Pragyan rover's route was reprogrammed on Monday from Isro headquarters in Bengaluru after it came across a 4-metre-wide crater on its way.
