On the one-year anniversary of India’s historic Moon landing, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) made scientific data from the Chandrayaan-3 mission available to researchers worldwide. This move demonstrates ISRO’s commitment to advance worldwide lunar research.
On August 23, 2023, Chandrayaan-3 made a gentle landing near the Moon’s south pole, a previously unknown region. In recognition of this accomplishment, the Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) has made over 55 gigabytes of data from the mission’s five payloads—three on the Vikram lander and two on the Pragyan rover—available via the Policy-based Data Retrieval, Analytics, Dissemination, and Notification System (PRADAN) portal at https://pradan.issdc.gov.in/ch3/
ISRO Chairman S Somanath emphasised the importance of sharing this data globally: “This data will not be confined to the scientists who created those instruments, but will be made available to all researchers in the country and around the world.”
The data provides crucial insights into the moon’s surface and composition, which aid in understanding its formation and evolution. The Pragyan rover’s in-situ chemical studies have been critical to furthering lunar science, providing significant information for current and future research.
