The CSIR Foundation Day public lecture, delivered by Dr. Prakash Chauhan, Director of the National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO, Hyderabad, illuminated the latest insights gained from Indian Lunar Exploration Missions. The lecture, titled "Exploration of Moon: New Insights from Indian Lunar Exploration Missions," captivated an eager audience at the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography's Auditorium.

Dr. Prakash Chauhan, a distinguished scientist renowned for his contributions to Earth Observation applications, shared his extensive knowledge, emphasizing his pioneering work in ocean color parameter retrieval, marine resource assessment, and climate response using space-borne observations. His remarkable achievements also extend to leading the use of hyperspectral satellite data for Indian Planetary Missions such as Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-1, including his role as the Principal Investigator for the Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (IIRS) instrument on Chandrayaan-2.

The lecture shed light on India's ongoing Lunar Exploration Programme, a series of ambitious outer space missions executed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Dr. Chauhan highlighted the critical milestones achieved, including the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1 on October 22, 2008, which paved the way for in-depth scientific exploration of the Moon. The mission carried eleven instruments to investigate mineral distribution, detect ice at polar regions, map elemental distribution, and characterize the Moon's radiation environment.

Chandrayaan-1 yielded groundbreaking discoveries, with the most notable being the revelation of an active hydrosphere in the polar regions of the Moon, reshaping our understanding of Earth's celestial neighbor. Building on this success, ISRO initiated the Chandrayaan-2 mission, which entered lunar orbit following its triumphant launch on July 22, 2019. Most recently, Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on the Moon's south pole, with both the Vikram Lander and Pragyan rover conducting experiments to detect water and analyze various geophysical parameters.

Dr. Prakash Chauhan's lecture provided an in-depth exploration of the presence of hydration on the Moon and surface geology, unveiling a wealth of new information that will undoubtedly shape future lunar research endeavors.

The event commenced with a warm welcome by Prof. Sunil Kumar Singh, Director of CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, and concluded with a Vote of Thanks delivered by Dr. Sanil Kumar, Chief Scientist at CSIR-NIO.

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GSK/SRT/PK