An illustration of Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan rover roaming on the lunar floor. Photo: X/@chandrayaan_3 through PTI
Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan rover has confirmed the presence of sulphur on the moon’s floor, close to its south pole, and remains to be searching for hydrogen, the Indian Space Research Organisation mentioned on Tuesday.
The Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument onboard the Chandrayaan-3’s rover has made the first-ever in-situ measurements on the fundamental composition of the lunar floor close to the south pole. “These in-situ measurements confirm the presence of Sulphur (S) in the region unambiguously, something that was not feasible by the instruments onboard the orbiters,” ISRO mentioned. “Search for Hydrogen (H) is underway,” it posted on X (previously Twitter).
Laser pulse method
The LIBS is a scientific method that analyses the composition of supplies by exposing them to intense laser pulses. A high-energy laser pulse is focussed onto the floor of a fabric, corresponding to a rock or soil, and generates an especially sizzling and localised plasma. The collected plasma gentle is spectrally resolved and detected by cost coupled units. Since every component emits a attribute set of wavelengths of sunshine when in a plasma state, the fundamental composition of the fabric may be decided on this manner.
“Preliminary analyses, graphically represented, have unveiled the presence of Aluminum (Al), Sulphur (S), Calcium (Ca), Iron (Fe), Chromium (Cr), and Titanium (Ti) on the lunar surface. Further measurements have revealed the presence of manganese (Mn), silicon (Si), and oxygen (O). Thorough investigation regarding the presence of Hydrogen is underway,” ISRO mentioned.
The LIBS payload was developed at ISRO’s Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems in Bengaluru.
