ISRO releases Chandrayaan-3 scientific data for global researchers

ISRO Chairman S Somanath

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has made available the scientific data from its Chandrayaan-3 mission to researchers worldwide on the first anniversary of India's successful Moon landing. This announcement highlights ISRO's commitment to advancing global scientific knowledge and lunar exploration.

On August 23, 2023, Chandrayaan-3 made history with a soft landing near the Moon's south pole, a region previously unexplored by landers. To celebrate this significant achievement, ISRO has released over 55 gigabytes of data collected from the mission's five payloads—three on the Vikram lander and two on the Pragyan rover. This data is now accessible through the Policy-based Data Retrieval, Analytics, Dissemination, and Notification System (PRADAN) portal, managed by the Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) at www.pradan.issdc.gov.in.

ISRO Chairman S Somanath emphasized the importance of making this data widely available. "This data is not going to be confined with those scientists who have created those instruments, but it will be made available to all the researchers of the country and the world for furthering the outcome of this," Somanath stated during the National Space Day celebrations in New Delhi.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission's data offers crucial insights into the Moon's surface and its composition. The Pragyan rover's in-situ chemical analyses have been instrumental in advancing our understanding of the Moon's origin and evolution.