The high temperature of the lunar soil, measured by the Indian Pragyan lunar rover, can be attributed to a special relief or composition of the regolith. This was reported to socialbites.ca by Vladislav Shevchenko, head of the Department of Lunar and Planetary Studies of the State Astronomical Institute. Sternberg Moscow State University.
On August 27, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) released data on the temperature of the lunar soil at the landing site of the Vikram apparatus of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. According to the instruments of the Pragyan lunar rover, the lunar regolith is heated to about 55 °C near the surface. ISRO employee Bee Darukesha told Indian journalists that she and her colleagues expected the temperature not to exceed 20-30°C and were surprised at such a high temperature. According to him, it reached 70°C, but this is not reflected in the published chart.
“Before we are surprised, we need to understand what kind of regolith this is. It can have different thermophysical properties depending on the chemical composition and fraction – fine-grained like sand or coarser. For example, a photo of the landing site shows a small rock – it could rise if they measured the temperature on it. The published temperature data is interesting, but without additional information you cannot draw conclusions; at least you need to take a picture of the point where they are measured, ”the scientist explained.
Also, Shevchenko notes that it is necessary to analyze the relief of the landing zone. The Chandrayaan-3 mission landed in the south polar region at latitude -69°, where the sun never reached its zenith. For this reason, the regions around the poles have endless dark pits as well as constantly illuminated peaks.
“If the measurements were made on a hill illuminated by the Sun (or most of it) all day, then it must have a different temperature regime. So data analysis can be much more interesting than the fact of 70 degrees. If you do a lot of these kinds of measurements at the landing site, if you analyze the terrain and soil type, you can understand a lot about the properties of the regolith,” said Shevchenko.
In August, India became the fourth country to set foot on the moon, after the USSR, USA and China. How was the “Chandrayan-3” mission organized? material “socialbites.ca”.