Chandrayaan 3, India's third lunar mission is gearing up to make a soft landing on the Moon's south pole today evening. If successful, India will claim the title of being the first nation to reach the challenging south pole of the Moon. While globally India would emerge as a space power, the Indian lunar program has a Tamil connection. (CHECK LIVE UPDATES) Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous lander module (LM), propulsion module (PM) and a rover (Twitter/@isro)

From the scientists who helmed each of the three crucial Moon missions to the state's soil, Tamil Nadu has a special link with the historic mission.

Tamil scientists connection

Chandrayaan 3 mission's Tamil connection refers to the three scientists from Tamil Nadu who helmed each of the crucial Moon missions of India's space program - Mayilsamy Annadurai, dubbed as the ‘Moon Man of India’, led the maiden Chandrayaan mission in 2008, M Vanitha led the Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019, and M Veeramuthuvel is heading the current Chandrayaan-3 Mission.

Tamil soil connection

Reportedly, Namakkal district which is about 400 km from Chennai, has been supplying soil to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) since 2012 for testing the Chandrayaan missions' capability. According to the Director of the Geology Department of Periyar University, Professor S Anbazhagan, the soil was available in abundance in the Namakkal area, enabling them to rise to the occasion when the need arose for ISRO, reported news agency PTI.

“We have been engaged in conducting research in geology. Tamil Nadu has the kind of soil that is present on the lunar surface, particularly that which is very similar to the soil present at the southern pole (of the Moon). The lunar surface has 'Anorthosite' (a type of intrusive igneous rock) type of soil,” the professor told PTI.

He added that following the success of Chandrayaan 1, about 50 tonnes of soil - similar to the kind of soil present on the lunar surface - was sent to ISRO. After undertaking several tests, scientists at ISRO confirmed that the soil from Namakkal matches with the soil on the lunar surface.

"We have been sending the soil to ISRO as per their requirement. They (ISRO scientists) have been performing tests on the soil supplied by us. Even if a Chandrayaan-4 mission comes up, we are geared to supply the soil for it,” Prof Anbazhagan said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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