Students of Everwin School with their faces painted with Moon have a good time the pre-soft landing of Chandrayaan-3, in Chennai.
| Photo Credit: PTI
It is just not solely Tamil Nadu’s sons of the soil – former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Chandrayaan-2 Mission Director Mayilsamy Annadurai, and Chandrayaan-3 Project Director Veeramuthuvel P – who’ve contributed to ISRO missions, but actually the State’s soil itself.
Since 2012, Namakkal, which is about 400 km from the State capital Chennai, has equipped soil to ISRO for testing for the Chandrayaan Mission functionality, because the earth in that district is analogous to that of the lunar floor.
This has enabled ISRO to take a look at and refine the power of the lander module to delicate land on the floor of the Moon, on condition that the properties of the Namakkal soil are related.
So, if Chandrayaan-3’s lander module achieves its goal of efficiently delicate landing on the Moon, it could give Tamil Nadu an additional cause to cheer.
This is the third time that Tamil Nadu has equipped the mandatory soil to the Bengaluru headquartered house company for performing the checks for its bold Moon missions.
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According to the Director of Geology Department of Periyar University, Professor S. Anbazhagan, the soil was accessible in abundance within the Namakkal space, enabling them to rise to the event when the necessity arose for ISRO.
Students of Everwin School with their faces painted with Moon have a good time the pre-soft landing of Chandrayaan-3, in Chennai.
| Photo Credit:
PTI
“We have been engaged in conducting research in geology. Tamil Nadu has the kind of soil that is present on the lunar surface, particularly that which is very similar to the soil present at the southern pole [of the Moon]. The lunar surface has ‘Anorthosite’ [a type of intrusive igneous rock] type of soil,” he stated.
“We have been sending the soil to ISRO soon after it announced the Moon exploration programme,” he told PTI in a brief interaction.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission aims at soft-landing of the spacecraft on the unexplored southern pole of the Moon. It would make India the fourth country to achieve this remarkable feat after the United States, erstwhile Soviet Union and China.
Elaborating on how it all began, Professor Anbazhagan said that following the success of the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008, scientists were gearing up to perform the Chandrayaan-2 mission, which aimed at demonstrating the capability to soft-land on the surface of the Moon. In comparison, Chandrayaan-1’s mission was to orbit the Moon and not land on its surface.
In Chandrayaan-2 mission, it was planned that a rover would come out of the lander module and crawl on the surface of the Moon, undertaking tests in the process, he said.
“About 50 tonnes of soil have been despatched to ISRO, which was related to the sort of soil current on the lunar floor,” Professor Anbazhagan, who specialises in remote sensing and groundwater exploration at the university in Salem, said.
After undertaking various tests, scientists at ISRO confirmed that the soil available in the Namakkal area matched with that of the lunar surface, he added.
To a query, Professor Anbazhagan said the soil was available in abundance in places like Sithampoondi and Kunnamalai villages surrounding Namakkal, and also in some areas in Andhra Pradesh and northern parts of the country.
“We have been sending the soil to ISRO as per their requirement. They [ISRO scientists] have been performing checks on the soil equipped by us,” he stated, including, “Even if a Chandrayaan-4 mission comes up, we are geared to supply the soil for it.”
