Chandrayaan 2 confirms the presence of water molecules on the Moon

The discovery was made by Chandrayaan-2 orbiter’s imaging infrared spectrometer. According to scientists, more data regarding this discovery will be obtainable in the future, which will give us a complete picture.

In 2019, India’s aspiring Chandrayaan-2 moon mission may have made a hard landing, but the orbiter that went along with it has proved to be quite handy, relaying useful information to scientists back on earth. Prior to this week, a research paper disclosed that the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter guaranteed the presence of water molecules and

hydroxyl - H2o and OH respectively - on the moon’s surface.

Researchers used the data obtained by the orbiter's IIRS to properly understand the mineral compositions of the satellite.

These - exceptional - findings were publicized/published in the Current Science journal. The research article that was published on the 10th of August said “The initial data analysis from IIRS clearly demonstrates the presence of widespread lunar hydration and

unambiguous detection of OH and H2O signatures between 29 degrees north and 62 degrees north latitude,”. A group of researchers who study and investigate the information of the IIRS - Imaging Infrared Spectrometer - additionally added “Plagioclase-rich rocks have been found to have higher OH or possibly H2O molecules when compared to mare regions which were found out to have more dominance of OH at higher surface temperatures,”. The paper notes that the latest discovery is “significant for the future planetary exploration for resource utilization” -- something that would cause a major interest for countries to hurry to the Moon with drafts/plans to assemble lunar bases. Along with India, numerous countries are currently - planning to or - returning to the Moon with new probes to harness rare-Earth minerals that will most likely be found on the natural satellite.

ISRO - Indian Space Research Organisation - launched the Chandrayaan-2 mission in July of 2019. Unfortunately in September of the same year, the Vikram lander on-board the mission crash-landed on the lunar surface a mere 2 kilometres (approximately) from its destination. Though both the rover and lander had suffered a fatal crash, the orbiter is still hovering, leading to groundbreaking fresh discoveries. ISRO mentioned that the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter - which has eight scientific instruments - will continue its seven-year mission to examine the surface of the Moon.

The orbiter payloads - the eight scientific instruments on the orbiter - are;

1. Solar X-ray Monitor - XSM

2. Imaging IR Spectrometer - IIRS

3. Dual Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar - DFSAR

4. Terrain Mapping Camera 2 - TMC 2

5. Orbiter High-Resolution Camera - OHRC

6. Dual Frequency Radio Science - (DFRS) - experiment

7. Chandrayaan 2 Large Área Soft X-ray Spectrometer - CLASS

8. Chandrayaan 2 Atmospheric Compositional Explorer 2 - CHACE 2

This mission - Chandrayaan-2 - had two main aims. These were to;

map the variations in lunar surface composition, and, locate and study

the surface of the Moon for the presence of H2O.

Even though ISRO is known for making new discoveries on the moon

with Chandrayaan-1 itself, the recent findings were the compliments of

a team of scientists from IIRS Dehradun.

This team included;

- Prabhakar Verma

- Prakash Chauhan

- Mamta Chauhan

- Aditya Kumar Dagar

- Ajay Kumar Parashar

- Amitabh

- Abishek N. Patil

- Supriya Sharma

- Satadru Bhattacharya

- Ankush Kumar

- Ritu Karidhal from URRSC, Bengaluru

- Nilesh Desai from Space Applications Centre (SAC)

- AS Kiran Kumar from ISRO

A successful landing - which includes the rover, orbiter and lander - would have made India the fourth country in the world to land a rocket on the moon, the first three being the US, the erstwhile USSR and China. If this mission had been executed perfectly, India would also have been the first country to have landed close to the lunar South Pole.

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