By Udbhav Bhargava
Introduction
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has secured the patent for its remarkable process of manufacturing artificial Moon Soil on Earth. ISRO procures patent for producing Moon Soil on Earth Gaining the patent was amongst the few essential things required to begin with producing Regolith on Earth. All the required procedures have been fulfilled to start with the process of creating and producing the lunar soil simulant. ISRO has also found all the necessary factors such as mineralogy, grain size distribution, bulk chemistry and geo-mechanical properties, as per the patent application.
Moon Surface
The surface of the Moon has two hemispheres with rather asymmetric properties. As a consequence the nature of the Lunar surface that we can see from the Earth is substantially different from the surface that is always hidden from the Earth. We may also divide these into two groups
Near Side and Far Side
The side of the Moon unseen from the Earth is called the far side. One of the first Lunar orbiters’ discoveries is that the far side has a very different look than the near side. The findings revealed that Moon’s surface contains 80 per cent of ‘Highlands’ which are the dangerous areas of craters, cavities and mountains on the moon’s surface.
India and Far Side
With Chandrayaan-2 mission, ISRO objective was to land on the lunar South Pole However, India lost contact with the Lander (Vikram) and Rover (Pragyan) just few Kms before the surface of the moon.
Story behind Patenting of Moon soil
More than a decade ago, the Indian Space Research Organization ( ISRO) developed a proto-Lunar Terrain Test Facility (LTTF) at its advanced satellite testing unit in Bengaluru as the 2008 Chandrayaan-1 orbiter mission was being prepared. This, it did by modifying a balloon testing laboratory, about 30-40 m high, long, and wide. Sending a moon lander was at the time a remote priority thought. Realizing the dream, however, the first challenge was equipping the LTTF and making it look and sound like being on the moon. For that, it needed lunar ‘soil’, almost all of its features and texture, lunar temperatures, low gravity and the same amount of sunlight as on the moon.
Options with ISRO
An choice for recreating the terrain was to import simulated lunar soil from the U.S. — at an exorbitant $150 per kg (the price then prevailing). The facility needed roughly 60-70 tons of soil. ISRO bought a small amount of simulated lunar soil from the United States but soon wanted to pursue their own solution at a lower cost. Geologists from different national agencies noticed that a few sites near Salem in Tamil Nadu had the rock that somewhat matches composition and features of lunar soil. Professional crushers broke down the rocks and soil to the micro grain sizes the ISRO-led team had been searching for.
Several other space organizations from a variety of countries have struggled to reproduce simulant lunar soil and its behavior on Earth. The difference between the lunar soil simulant from ISRO and the simulants from other agencies is that ISRO has successfully found a way to recreate highlands where others have produced moon soil that is typically found in flat Moon regions. ISRO Chief K. Sivan in his statement revealed that space agency’s this new creation would ensure successful soft landing of the Chandrayaan-3 rover through a sustainable stimulus for preparation.
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