Chandrayaan-3’s findings say that the moon is habitable!
Since its launch, Chandrayaan-3 is a step closer to exploring the surface of the moon especially the south pole of the moon. Since Vikram Lander touched upon the Lunar surface it has been continuously communicating all the telemetry and data from all the onboarded instruments on the lander and the rover. This received data is of huge importance for understanding a step further about the moon.
Since the data comes steadily, it is into bits and pieces. However, when you combine all the bits and pieces of information together it can be said that the Moon is much more habitable than we ever knew. One might wonder what data says it so.
Well, when the rover and lander sent a probe down to 10 cm into the lunar surface, it revealed wow data. The temperature was revealed to be 50 degrees Celsius hot, whereas just 8cm below the surface, the temperature is as cold as minus 10 degrees Celsius. Scientists knew the lunar surface was cold, however, with this revelation, it can be speculated that the lunar topsoil acts as an insulator.
Regolith Shielding
Some 2015 research papers titled “Determination of temperature variation on lunar surface and sub-surface for habitat analysis and design” determined that the outermost layer of regolith fluff has very strong insulating capabilities which causes the temperature to drop 132.3K from the maximum magnitude within the first 30cm at which point it then remains constant with increasing depth.
Since the moon has no atmosphere, it is directly exposed to the sun. It becomes extremely hot during the day and super cold during the night. And, hence to build a habitat like that, it calls for super insulation. So it can be speculated that this insulation is available on the moon and it no longer needs to be carried from Earth.
Thus, this Regolith Shielding layer spread over the top can make the inhabitants feel comfortable with the atmosphere. Also, this fluff has low conductivity.
Pragyan Rover
According to the reports and data collected from Pragyan Rover which was included in Chandrayaan-3, is the presence of Oxygen in the lunar soil. The laser beams that were thrown by the LIBS Instrument of Pragyan Rover analyzed the reflections of the beams. It found that there is the presence of sulfur, calcium, and many other trace materials such as iron, chromium, titanium, magnesium, aluminum, and oxygen.
The presence of FeTiO3 means one does not have to build the house only near the ice source. Ice is not present everywhere on the moon, but the soil is which makes it a huge relief.
Thus, all of these findings from the Pragyan Rover and Vikram Lander can lead us to know that the Moon is habitable.
