Chandrayaan-3 Offers Groundbreaking Findings on Water Ice Retention on the Moon

There could be more water on the Moon than we thought.

The Moon’s Magnetic Mystery: Chandrayaan-2 Just Changed Everything We Knew

A Private Spacecraft (Blue Ghost) Landed Successfully on the Moon for the First Time in Human History: The Next Chapter in Lunar Exploration

Japan’s SLIM Mission: A Venture for Secure Landings on Moon!

Chandrayaan 3 carried a payload called ChaSTE (short for Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment) on Vikram lander, which successfully landed for the first time on the south pole of the moon on 23 August 2023. The landing place is now known as ‘Statio Shiv Shakti’. The aim of the experiment was to provide temperatures of the top 10 cm of regolith (layer on the moon surface having unconsolidated materials that covers the solid rocks) and thermal conductivity of a high latitude location in the south pole region.

A team of researchers from Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad published the results entitled “Higher surface temperatures near south polar region of the Moon measured by ChaSTE experiment on-board Chandrayaan-3” in a journal Communications Earth & Environment [1].

Why this experiment is important?

The temperature and thermal conductivity directly influence the stability of water-ice and volatile compounds, which are essential for the resource utilization. Variations in the surface and sub-surface temperatures decide the retention or sublimation of water-ice, especially in permanently shadowed areas. Additionally, the thermal properties can provide the insights into the Moon’s geophysics and geological history. Accurate thermal data set can also help in planning and designing the future lunar missions to have a better equipment functionality and human habitation.

Outcome of the experiment

ChaSTE has provided the first-ever in-situ temperature measurements of the Moon at a lunar southern polar region. ChaSTE recorded a peak temperature of 355K (higher than the expected 330K).

ChaSTE measurements have indicated that there is an impact of local topography on the temperature. The lunar surface temperatures show a significant spatial variability at metre scales at high latitudes, unlike at the equatorial regions, indicating towards the possible presence of widespread water-ice within the shallow subsurface of , even at high latitudes.

Model based estimates using ChaSTE measurements showed that locations with higher poleward slopes at these latitudes might offer similar environment as polar sites for accumulating water ice at shallow depths.

Surface water-ice is unstable at the ChaSTE location due to high temperatures. However, poleward slopes with angles >14° can have apt conditions for water-ice trapping and could be key sites for future exploration.

As water-ice has been so far thought to be stable only at the lunar poles (around 80 degree South), this becomes an interesting finding as exploration of high latitude regions are less technically challenging than compared to that of lunar poles, an important aspect for future in-situ exploration and human activities on the Moon.

1. Kumar, Chandan, Sanjeev K. Mishra, Janmejay Kumar, Dinakar Prasad Vajja, Tinkal Ladiya, Arpit Patel, Murty SVS, and Anil Bhardwaj. “Higher surface temperatures near south polar region of the Moon measured by ChaSTE experiment on-board Chandrayaan-3.” Communications Earth & Environment 6, no. 1 (2025): 1-11.

To get the latest update, type your email address