ISRO releases Chandrayaan-3 scientific data for global researchers

The ISRO on Friday threw open its scientific data gathered from the Chandrayaan-3 mission for researchers across the world for analyses to mark the first anniversary of India landing a spacecraft on the Moon. The space agency has granted access to over 55 gigabytes of data from the five payloads – three on the Vikram lander and two on the Pragyan rover – that created history on August 23 last year by making a soft landing near the unexplored south pole region of the Moon.

"This data is not going to be confined to those scientists who have created those instruments, but it will be made available to all the researchers of the country and the world for furthering the outcome of this," ISRO Chairman S Somanath said at the National Space Day celebrations here.

The Chandrayaan-3 data sets are available on the Policy-based data Retrieval, Analytics, Dissemination and Notification System (PRADAN) portal of the Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) – www.Pradan.Issdc.Gov.In.The Pragyan rover conducted in-situ chemical analyses of the lunar surface, contributing to a better understanding of the Moon's origin and evolution.

This information is crucial for future lunar exploration and potential resource utilisation. Scientists from Ahmedabad's Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) after studying the data from Chandrayaan-3 provided evidence to confirm the Lunar Magma Ocean Hypothesis that the Moon evolved from a giant ocean of magma which later cooled down.

President Droupadi Murmu made it a point to laud the findings of India's space scientists which were published in the science journal 'Nature' in her speech on the National Space Day. The president said ISRO had made remarkable achievements in the space sector as well as made invaluable contributions to the country's social and economic development