With India’s Chandrayaan 3’s historic Moon landing on its south pole on Wednesday, a first for any country, now the scientific community awaits the findings of the ₹615 crore mission. The project was launched with the aim to demonstrate safe and soft-landing on the lunar surface, roving on the Moon, and to conduct scientific experiments to study its surface and atmosphere. But the spacecraft will remain on the Moon forever and will not return back to the Earth.
However, there have been various moon missions in which the spacecraft have brought back samples from the Moon such as its rock and soil for further studies. These include the United States’ Apollo missions and the former Soviet Luna missions.
Why are Moon rocks important?
1) Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo missions brought back 382 kilograms of lunar rocks, core samples, pebbles, sand and dust from the lunar surface, NASA said, adding that in addition, three Soviet spacecraft returned samples totalling 300 grams from three other lunar sites.
2)The space agency explained how the samples are used for experiments and said that nearly 400 samples are distributed each year for research and teaching purposes. India also has access to these samples. They are officially stored at the Physical Research Laboratory, a unit of the Indian Space Research Organisation in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
3)The rock and soil samples brought back from the Moon provide crucial details about its early history, the Earth, and the inner solar system. The chemical composition of these rocks helps scientists progress on their theories of the origin of the Moon.
4)The study of these rocks and soil has revealed that the crust formed on the Moon 4.4 billion years ago. “This crust formation, the intense meteorite bombardment occurring afterward, and subsequent lava outpourings are recorded in the rocks,” NASA said.
5)It further explained that the Moon’s soil also trapped the radiation spewed out by the Sun after the formation of its crust. This serves as a record of solar activity throughout this time.