ISRO's Moon Mission : Chandrayaan-1

The first Indian satellite to be placed in lunar orbit by ISRO, the Chandrayaan-1, was carrying with it NASA’s Moon mineralogy mapper , popularly known as M3. The Chandrayaan-1 crashed near the south pole of the moon and the cloud of the dust and debris raised by this impact was analyzed to detect the presence or the absence of water on moon. The M3 analyzes the reflection of sunlight on the lunar surface to determine its composition. The light is reflected in different wavelengths depending on the nature of minerals and researchers can use these variations to determine the composition of the upper layer of the moon. In addition to this, Chandyayaan-1 sent numerous images of the moon’s surface which further confirmed the presence of pockets of water on the moon’s surface.

The M3 loaded on Chandrayaan-1 has detected a wavelength of light indicating a chemical binding of hydrogen and oxygen. The reports have been published in the credible journal “Science”. It states that this proves the presence of water, consisting of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom on moon. The report also mentions that instrument can only scan the surface layers of lunar soil, perhaps a few centimeters below the surface.

Until this discovery, scientists proposed the theory, that there might be presence of ice in areas of permanent darkness in the depths of craters at the lunar poles and thought the rest of the moon was completely dry. Since rocks and soil on the moon contain about forty-five percent oxygen, it remains to determine the source of hydrogen observed by the instruments of the probes. These researchers believe it could come from solar winds. The sun constantly emits particles, mostly protons in the form of charged hydrogen atoms during nuclear fusion reactions, which bombard the lunar surface. According to estimates by the scientists there could be as high as twenty-five percent of water per ton of lunar soil.

There were two other probes carried out by the same instrument that was used by the Indian satellite Chandrayaan-1 sent by ISRO and they too had shown the presence of water molecule on the moon’s surface. One of them was done by the American spaceship Cassini and the other has by American Deep Impact launched on Comet Tempel 1 to analyze the dust thrown by striking a projectile. However, these results were ignored as researchers concluded that the water molecules , which were similar to it’s composition on earth , actually came from the moisture in the air and not the lunar surface.

Although, the presence of water on moon doesn’t yet embolden the possibility of man inhabiting moon as his second home, but it surely does strengthen the chances of using moon as a space station for exploration of other celestial bodies and planets.