India celebrated First National Space Day

India is celebrating its National Space Day on August 23, 2024, on the one-year anniversary of successful moon landing of ISRO's Vikram Lander from Chandrayaan-3 on August 23, 2023. India made history on August 23, 2023, by becoming the fourth nation to successfully land on the Moon and the first to reach its southern polar region. To commemorate this monumental achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared August 23 as "National Space Day.

National Space Day 2024: Theme 

The theme of this year's National Space Day is "Touching Lives while Touching the Moon: India's Space Saga." This theme reflects India's extraordinary journey in space exploration and its impact on society. 

Chandrayan3

Chandrayaan-3 was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 14 July 2023. The spacecraft entered lunar orbit on 5 August, and became the first lander to touch down near the lunar south pole on 23 August, making India the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon, and at 69°S, the southernmost lunar landing.landing site was named "Shiv-Shakti Point".The lander was not built to withstand the cold temperatures of the lunar night, and sunset over the landing site ended the surface mission twelve days after landing.The propulsion module was still operational till November. 

Objectives of Chandrayan3

• To land safely and softly on the surface of the Moon.
• To Observe and demonstrate the rover's driving capabilities on the Moon.
• To Conduct and observe experiments on the materials available on the lunar surface for better understanding the composition of the Moon.

Design of Chandrayan3

Chandrayaan-3 comprises three main components: a propulsion module, lander module, and rover.

Propulsion module

The propulsion module carried the lander and rover configuration to a 100-kilometre lunar orbit. It was a box-like structure with a large solar panel mounted on one side and a cylindrical mounting structure for the lander on top. 

Vikram lander

The Vikram lander was responsible for the soft landing on the Moon. It is also box-shaped, with four landing legs and four landing thrusters capable of producing 800 newtons of thrust each. It carried the rover and had various scientific instruments to perform on-site analysis. 

Rover pragyan

The Pragyan rover is a six-wheeled vehicle with a mass of 26 kilograms. The rover is expected to take multiple measurements to support research into the composition of the lunar surface, the presence of water ice in the lunar soil, the history of lunar impacts, and the evolution of the Moon's atmosphere.

Results of Chandrayan3

• It found signs of frozen water on the lunar surface. 
• Temperature variation: ISRO also released data from the observations made by ChaSTE (Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment),experienced 70-degree-Celsius (158-degree-Fahrenheit) temperature near the moon surface. 
• Detection of sulfur: the laser-induced breakdown spectroscope (LIBS) instrument on board the Pragyan rover has "unambiguously" confirmed the presence of sulfur in the lunar surface near the south pole, through "first-ever in-situ measurements". The presence of sulfur on the Moon has been known before;however, it was detected for the first time at the south pole by the rover.
• Detection of others elements: Apart from sulfur, the rover also detected other elements including aluminium (Al), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr), titanium (Ti), manganese (Mn), silicon (Si), and oxygen (O). 
• Plasma detection: ISRO released plasma density data from the RAMBHA Instrument aboard the Vikram lander. Initial assessments reported relatively low plasma densities above the lunar surface varying from 5 to 30 million electrons per m3. 

• Seismic measurements:ILSA payload on the lander, providing vibration measurements of the rover movement on 25 August, and a presumed natural event on 26 August.it was suspected to be a moonquake.