Current Affairs - State - Discussion

Indian Space Research Organisation has received a patent for its method of manufacturing highland lunar soil simulant or moon soil which was prepared to create an artificial moon surface as a part of 2019's Moon landing mission Chandrayaan-2 so that the Vikram lander and Pragyaan rover could be tested. This soil simulant represents the regolith (loose unconsolidated rock and dust that sits atop a layer of bedrock) of lunar highland region. It is made in bulk from anorthosite rocks, a sample similar to regolith identified and picked out from Sittampundi Anorthosite Complex, almost 67 km from Salem, in Tamil Nadu.