The national space agency says the Chandrayaan-3 mission has found sulphur on the Moon, and the search is on for hydrogen
The Pragyan lunar rover, which is a part of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, has detected sulphur near the Moon’s south pole, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) instrument onboard the Rover unambiguously confirms the presence of Sulphur in the lunar surface near the south pole, through first-ever in-situ measurements,” the ISRO posted on X (formerly Twitter).
The space agency confirmed that aluminum, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen have also been detected, as expected, and that the “search for hydrogen is underway.”
Of the three missions envisaged by the scientists behind the Chandrayaan-3 mission – a demonstration of a soft landing, a rover roving on the Moon, and conducting in-situ scientific experiments – the probe has already accomplished two, and the third is underway, ISRO said earlier.
The Chandyaan-3 mission is analyzing the composition of materials on the Moon by exposing them to high-energy laser pulses, the ISRO has said. The technique, known as ‘LIBS’, can determine the elemental composition of materials such as rocks and soil.
On August 27, the rover came across a 4-meter-diameter crater located 3 meters in front of it. However, a course correction was done and the rover safely headed on a new path, the space agency stated.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission: