Chandrayaan-3: On Saturday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) unveiled a fresh photo of the Chandrayaan-3 lander Vikram that had been captured by a device on the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. The Dual-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (DFSAR) instrument on board the Chandrayaan 2 Orbiter captured the picture of Chandrayaan 3’s lander on Wednesday and shared it with the public.
ISRO Reveals Chandrayaan-3 Lander Image Captured by DFSAR
“Here is an image of the Chandrayaan-3 Lander taken by the Dual-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (DFSAR) instrument onboard the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter on September 6, 2023,” the space agency said on Twitter. A crucial scientific tool on the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter is DFSAR. It makes use of L- and S-band microwaves. The highest resolution polarimetric photos are currently available from any planetary mission thanks to this cutting-edge technology. DFSAR can investigate lunar subsurface structures down to a few metres because of the extended radar wavelength. For the past four years, DFSAR has been beaming high-quality data by imaging the lunar surface, with an emphasis on the lunar polar research.
How Microwaves Reveal Celestial Bodies
A SAR device sends microwaves in a specific frequency band and then picks up those same waves as they are reflected off the surface. It can image even without solar illumination because it is a radar. It can offer both the target features’ physical details and their distance. SAR is therefore used to remotely sense the Earth and other celestial bodies. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft of the US space agency NASA just revealed a picture of the Chandrayaan-3 lander ‘Vikram’ on the lunar surface. The dazzling halo surrounding the Vikram can be seen against the dark shadow cast by the Chandrayaan-3 lander, which is in the image’s centre. Four days later, according to NASA, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) captured an oblique view (42-degree slew angle) of the lander. The rocket plume’s interaction with the fine-grained regolith (soil) caused the brilliant halo to form around the craft.
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