| Pragyan rover • It has completed its mission on the moon after 14 days, succumbing to the subzero temperatures. • Despite its short operational period, the rover met all of ISRO’s scientific goals, studying lunar soil and sending back valuable data, including the presence of sulphur and rock fragments near Shiv Shakti Point, where the lander touched down. |
- The Pragyan rover data, part of India’s historic Chandrayaan-3 mission, confirmed ferroan anorthosite in the lunar soil, supporting previous findings by the Apollo and Luna missions.
- This discovery supports the theory that these rocks are remnants of an ancient magma ocean that once covered the moon’s surface.
- The Pragyan rover, which travelled about 100 meters from the Vikram lander over two weeks, used its Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) to analyse lunar dust, identifying ferroan anorthosite and other ancient debris.
- The findings suggest that a powerful meteor strike created the South Pole-Aitken Basin, dispersing material from deep inside the moon.
Dig Deeper: Read about Chandrayan 3’s explorations like Moonquakes and the Plasma Environment of the Moon.
