Chandrayaan-3 successfully soft-landed on the lunar surface on August 23 – Photo: ISRO
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on August 29 said that the Laser Decomposition Spectrometer (LIBS) on the Pragyan rover has confirmed the presence of element sulphur, essential for life, on the surface near the Moon’s south pole. In-situ measurement.
“These in-situ measurements clearly confirm the presence of sulfur(s) in the region, which is not possible with instruments orbiting the spacecraft,” ISRO announced.
Earlier the same day, ISRO said that preliminary analyzes presented graphically revealed the presence of aluminum (Al), sulfur (S), calcium (Ca), iron (Fe), chromium (Cr) and titanium (Ti). It’s gone. lunar surface.
Further measurements revealed the presence of manganese (Mn), silicon (Si) and oxygen (O). Currently “a thorough investigation of the presence of hydrogen is underway”.
Pragyan is a rover of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar exploration mission, developed by ISRO. Chandrayaan-3 successfully soft-landed on the lunar surface on 23 August, making India the fourth country in the world to successfully land on the Moon.
India also marks an important milestone by becoming the first country to set foot near the Moon’s south pole, a region believed to have significant amounts of water ice.
Experts say that if this ice is accessible, it could be used to fuel rockets and provide life support for future crewed missions.
The Laser Decomposition Spectrometer (LIBS) was developed at ISRO’s Laboratory of Photoelectric Systems (LEOS) in Bengaluru, the state capital of Karnataka. LIBS is a scientific technique that analyzes the structure of materials by exposing them to high-intensity lasers.
A high-energy laser is focused onto the surface of the material to produce an extremely hot and localized plasma. The resulting light would be spectrally decomposed and detected by detectors such as charge-coupled devices. Since each element emits a specific set of wavelengths of light when in the plasma state, the elemental composition of the material is determined.
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