Pragyan rover finds an unexpected surprise on the moon: sulphur | Explained Premium

Instruments on the Pragyan rover of the Chandrayaan-3 mission measured sulphur in the soil, suggesting higher concentrations than expected. This could enable astronauts to live off the land and build solar cells, batteries, fertiliser and concrete from lunar resources.

In an exciting milestone for lunar scientists around the globe, India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander touched down 600 km from the south pole of the moon on August 23, 2023.

In just under 14 Earth days, Chandrayaan-3 provided scientists with valuable new data and further inspiration to explore the moon. And the Indian Space Research Organisation has shared these initial results with the world.

While the data from Chandrayaan-3’s rover, named Pragyan, or “wisdom” in Sanskrit, showed the lunar soil contains expected elements such as iron, titanium, aluminum and calcium, it also showed an unexpected surprise – sulphur.

Planetary scientists like me have known that sulphur exists in lunar rocks and soils, but only at a very low concentration. These new measurements imply there may be a higher sulphur concentration than anticipated.

Pragyan has two instruments that analyse the elemental composition of the soil – an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and a laser-induced breakdown spectrometer, or LIBS for short. Both of these instruments measured sulphur in the soil near the landing site.

Sulphur in soils near the moon’s poles might help astronauts live off the land one day, making these measurements an example of science that enables exploration.

There are two main rock types on the moon’s surface – dark volcanic rock and the brighter highland rock. The brightness difference between these two materials forms the familiar “man in the moon” face or “rabbit picking rice” image to the naked eye.