Chandrayaan-3 Detects 'Natural' Seismic Activity on Moon, ISRO Shares Latest Findings

As India’s ambitious third lunar mission — Chandrayaan-3 — is on the moon’s south pole, Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) on Thursday said the spacecraft recorded a seismic activity appearing to “be a natural one.”

This event, detected by the Vikram Lander, indicates a possibility of a quake on the moon, but its exact nature is currently under investigation.

Announcing the findings of another in-situ observations, ISRO said that the the Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) payload recorded an event appearing to be a natural one.

Taking to X (formally Twitter), ISRO said, “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: In-situ Scientific Experiments – Instrument for the Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) payload on Chandrayaan 3 Lander – the first Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology-based instrument on the moon – has recorded the movements of Rover and other payloads.”

“Additionally, it has recorded an event, appearing to be a natural one, on August 26, 2023. The source of this event is under investigation,” ISRO added.

Chandrayaan-3 mission objectives fulfilled till now

This comes as ISRO said that two or the three missions of the Chandrayaan-3 were achieved. The first 2 missions — demonstration of a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, and demonstration of rover movement on the moon — have been successful.

While the third mission, which is the in-situ scientific experiments on the moon are currently underway.

The mission made India the fourth country to accomplish a landing on the lunar surface, and the first to reach the unexplored south pole of the moon.

Latest observations of Chandrayaan-3

A child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama”, said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday as it shared a footage from the Moon captured by Vikram lander’s image camera of Pragyan rover rotating in search of a safe route.

“It feels as though a child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama, while the mother watches affectionately. Isn’t it?” ISRO said in a post on microblogging site X.

Before this, ISRO on Thursday confirmed that another instrument onboard the Pragyan rover of Chandrayaan-3 has confirmed the presence of Sulphur (S) on Moon, through another technique.

A few days back ISRO team had commanded Pragyan rover to reroute to ensure its safety after it detected a big crater on Moon.

Everything is working fine, says ISRO

ISRO chairman S Somanath on Thursday said that everything was working fine in the spacecraft, and that mission will be “successfully completed.”

“Everything is working fine, and we are hopeful that by the end of 14 days, our mission will be successfully completed,” he said addressing reporters.

The total life of Chandrayaan-3 is 14 Earth days, equal to one lunar day, and ISRO may try to stretch it for one more day. However, this will be determined on whether there is enough power to keep the Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover functioning well.

Chandrayaan-3

India on August 23 scripted history as ISRO’s ambitious third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3’s Lander Module (LM) touched down on the lunar surface.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced the decision to name the spot where Chandrayaan-3 Vikram lander made soft landing as ‘Shiv Shakti Point’ and the site where the Chandrayaan-2 lander crash-landed on the Moon’s surface in 2019 would be known as “Tiranga Point”.

Also, August 23, the day the Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down on the lunar surface, would be celebrated as National Space Day’, Modi had said.