LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface
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Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface
#2What is the significance of each element being found?
Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface
#3What is the significance of each element being found?
The main issue is detection of water, which would show up as hydrogen in the elemental analysis. Failure to detect hydrogen is probably the most significant result at present:
https://www.space.com/chandrayaan-3-moon-south-pole-why-nasa...
Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface
#4There's a flurry on new info. In particular the variance of surface temperature at the lunar south pole, from 60 degree Celsius on the lunar surface, to -10 degree Celsius if you probe just 8cm below the surface
https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FF4hsyEQaEAAB-AS.png
A whole seventy degree temperature difference over such a small height delta. There were a bunch of scientists trying to explain this on Indian news TV & it was quite amazing.
I'm actually very happy in ages! As an immigrant there is this bittersweet relationship with the home country. You want your home country to do well but at the same time you are hyperaware of its numerous deficiencies. I haven't been back to India in a few decades now. But so much science! And presented in such down to earth language. Its really like watching some of the old Apollo footage where you can actually understand the scientist. He's using simple graphs & charts & simple math to make his point, instead of drowning you in technojargon.
Their project scientist is a very ordinary guy with extremely average test scores, for an Indian aspirant. But this chap persisted & pursued his education throughout his adulthood, finally earning his PhD in aeronautics. He comes from a shithole village that is about 50km from my shithole village. I mean, growing up we didn't have fucking electricity until my teens. No proper drinking water. No phone no TV no nothing. Now he gets to put a rover on the moon! I had tears in my eyes at the end of his TV interview.
Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface
#5There's a flurry on new info. In particular the variance of surface temperature at the lunar south pole, from 60 degree Celsius on the lunar surface, to -10 degree Celsius if you probe just 8cm below the surface https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FF4hsyEQaEAAB-AS.png A whole seventy degree temperature difference over such a small height delta. There were a bunch of scientists trying to explain this on Indian news TV…
Thank you for sharing your perspective. It's nice to read something positive once in a while! :)
Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface
#6[flagged]
Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface
#7> ISRO announced the rover’s LIBS results definitively confirm the presence of sulfur at the landing site. Additionally, preliminary scans detect traces of aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen in the soil. Further hydrogen detection efforts are underway.
What about hydrogen? No hydrogen means no water where they're currently landed, right?
Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface
#8Not a space exploration expert. It seems like the presence of sulfur on the Moon has been known for a long time [1] but perhaps it's newsworthy that sulfur is more abundant in some regions (like the south pole) than previously thought. [1] says that sulfur has broad applications, most importantly the ability to be a substitute for water in mechanical and chemical processes.
[1] https://space.nss.org/wp-content/uploads/Lunar-Bases-confere...
Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface
#9There's a flurry on new info. In particular the variance of surface temperature at the lunar south pole, from 60 degree Celsius on the lunar surface, to -10 degree Celsius if you probe just 8cm below the surface https://nitter.net/pic/orig/media%2FF4hsyEQaEAAB-AS.png A whole seventy degree temperature difference over such a small height delta. There were a bunch of scientists trying to explain this on Indian news TV…
Cannot this gradient be used for some sort of heat pump? Or is it more effective to just outright collect the photons with solar panels.
Re: LIBS confirms the presence of sulphur on the lunar surface
#10> ISRO announced the rover’s LIBS results definitively confirm the presence of sulfur at the landing site. Additionally, preliminary scans detect traces of aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen in the soil. Further hydrogen detection efforts are underway. What about hydrogen? No hydrogen means no water where they're currently landed, right?
Probably elemental hydrogen.