On August 27, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released a graph of the temperature variation between the moon’s surface and a point around 8 cm below as measured by an instrument named ChaSTE on board the lander module of the Chandrayaan-3 mission.
According to ISRO, ChaSTE – short for ‘Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment’ – measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the south pole to understand its thermal behaviour.
ChaSTE is a temperature probe that can be driven into the moon’s surface using a motor to a depth of up to 10 cm. It has 10 sensors. The probe “… is mounted on the side of the lander,” according to a NASA catalogue entry.
