The world over, countries, companies and even individuals are turning to the Moon, racing with each other to fly their flags on the lunar South Pole. The Indian Space Research Organisation has explained why nations are investing resources to reach Moon's South Pole.
#LunarSouthPole #Moon #Chandrayaan3 #Chandrayaan3Landing #Chandrayaan3SoftLanding #VikramLander #Chandrayaan2 #ISRO #NASA
~HT.178~ED.194~
#LunarSouthPole #Moon #Chandrayaan3 #Chandrayaan3Landing #Chandrayaan3SoftLanding #VikramLander #Chandrayaan2 #ISRO #NASA
~HT.178~ED.194~
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00:00 The world over, countries, companies and even individuals are turning to the moon, racing
00:08 with each other to fly their flags on the lunar south pole.
00:13 The Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO has explained why nations are investing
00:19 resources to reach the moon's south pole.
00:22 Simply put, it is where scientists believe that there could be millions of tons of water.
00:28 A 1998 NASA mission, the Lunar Prospector found evidence that the highest concentration
00:34 of water ice was in the south pole's shadowed craters.
00:39 The moon's craters have been untouched by sunlight for billions of years.
00:44 This, scientists believe, could give them an undisturbed record of the solar system's
00:49 origins.
00:50 Craters in this region are permanently in shadow and are estimated to hold nearly 1
00:56 million tons of water.
00:59 The surface of the moon in this region has traces of hydrogen, ammonia, methane, sodium,
01:05 mercury and silver, making it an untapped source of essential resources.
01:11 Its elemental and positional advantages make it a suitable pit stop for future space exploration.
01:17 It's the frozen water on the moon that scientists are most interested in at this point.
01:24 As early as the 1960s, before the first Apollo landing, scientists had speculated that water
01:30 could exist on the moon.
01:31 But the samples that the Apollo crews returned with in the late 1960s and early 1970s appeared
01:37 to be dry.
01:38 In 2008, Brown University researchers again tested those lunar samples with new technology
01:45 and found hydrogen inside tiny beads of volcanic glass.
01:50 In 2009, a NASA instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1
01:56 probe detected water on the moon's surface.
01:59 In the same year, another NASA probe to the lunar South Pole found water ice below the
02:04 surface.
02:08 Scientists are interested in pockets of ancient water ice because they could provide a record
02:13 of lunar volcanoes, material that comets and asteroids delivered to Earth, and the origin
02:18 of oceans.
02:19 If water ice exists in sufficient quantities, it could be a source of drinking water for
02:25 moon exploration and could help cool equipment.
02:29 Water on the moon could also be broken down to produce hydrogen for fuel and oxygen to
02:34 breathe, support missions to Mars, or lunar mining.
02:38 The 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty prohibits any nation from claiming ownership
02:44 of the moon, but there is no provision that would stop commercial operations.
02:49 Attempted landings on the moon have failed before.
02:53 Only last week, Russia's Lunar 25 craft spun out of control just before landing and crashed.
02:58 The South Pole is full of craters and deep trenches.
03:02 Both the United States and China have planned missions to the South Pole.
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