ISRO gets patent for Made in India 'moon soil' | Chandrayaan-2 Mission Exploration | ISRO lunar mission |

ISRO has received a 'moon soil' patent

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        ISRO claimed, "Most future missions propose for a soft landing on the lunar highland region. Hence there is an urgent need for a bulk quantity of lunar soil simulants that represent the highland lunar crust. The ISRO simulant is exclusively manufactured to represent the lunar highland region and should also be useable in diverse lunar applications to provide the lowest possible risk."

       The simulant is almost equivalent to the regolith of the lunar highland region and comparable with Apollo 16 return samples.

       The patent is valid for 20 years from the date of filing the application, i.e., May 15, 2014. The inventors are: I. Venugopal, S.A. Kannan, Shamrao, V. Chandra Babu (all from ISRO), S. Anbazhagan, S. Arivazhagan, C.R. Paramasivam, M. Chinnamuthu (all from the Department of Geology, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu) and K. Muthukumaran from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu.

        A Business Standard report said the simulant prepared by ISRO is akin to the regolith, which is a loose unconsolidated rock that settles on the bedrock of the lunar highland region, which can be used to improve the mobility of the rover or to study lunar soil. It could also help with experiments and researches on ways to construct structures on the Moon's surface and make progress in lunar locomotive engineering.

        Importing lunar soil-like substance from the US was a costly affair and ISRO looked for a local solution as its need was about 60/70 tonnes of soil.

       "There are more than 30 lunar simulants that have been produced to date, some of which have been exhausted," ISRO said.

                                                                                         

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