How Chandrayaan 1 found water molecules on moon? - Chandrayaan series

On July 21, NASA celebrated the 50th anniversary of moon landing. It has been exactly 50 years since the Neil Armstrong set the first step on the moon. On 21st July, 1969, he became the first man to land on the moon. On 22nd October 2008, India launched it's first moon mission Chandrayaan 1 which found the presence of water molecules on the moon. Let's see how it finds.

Is Water exist on moon?

When the sunlight falls on the moon, it's surface temperature might reach a temperature of 125°C. In such a case, if there is water present on the moon, all of the water would evaporate into vapor. Since the moon has no atmosphere, there is no place to trap vapor and thus the vapor releases into space. On the other hand, if the sunlight doesn't fall in the moon's surface, it's temperature might reach -173°C. For water to exist, it requires 0 to 100°C. So, it is cleared that liquid water doesn't exist on the moon. Ever since 1960's, many scientists believed that the craters (pits) present on the moon might have water. There is some region in these craters that is covered by shadows. That is, the shadows of the craters will fall on these regions. So, the shadowy regions never receive sunlight. So, scientists believed that in the regions that never received sunlight, the temperature must be below than 0°C. As a result of this, some water may exist there in the form of ice. This water may exists in the moon by 3 sources viz.,

1. Endogenic processes,
2. External sources like asteroids and cometary impacts,
3. in-situ production of water on the planet.

CHANDRAYAAN 1 ACHIEVEMENTS:

Moon Impact Probe

Chandrayaan 1 mission consists of orbiter and the Moon Impact Probe (MIP - ISRO). By crashing the moon impact probe on south lunar region, water molecules was detected on the moon. Scientists have estimated that 1.3 trillion pounds of ice might exists in the shadow of these crater. Later in 2013, NASA's LRO(Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ) went to the moon and found out the Shakelton Crater. It is found near the south pole. Chandrayaan's MIP landed near this crater. The same crater was analysed by LRO and it was discovered that 22% of it's water is covered by ice. The cost of this mission is just 386 crore rupees. After a year later, the problem arises from the orbiter. Due to this many instruments may fail to work. On 29 August 2009, the radio signals coming out of the chandrayaan stopped. After few days, ISRO declared that the mission comes into halt. ISRO planned that Chandrayaan would work for 2 years but it works for 312 days only. However as the mission accomplished 95% part of it, it is considered as a successful mission.

LRO

(To be continued)