WATCH | How Chandrayaan-3’s Pragyan Rover Changed Its Path In Search Of A Safe Route on Moon – News18

A baby is playfully frolicking within the yards of Chandamama”, said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday as it shared a footage from the Moon captured by Vikram lander’s image camera of Pragyan rover rotating in search of a safe route.

A few days back ISRO team had commanded Pragyan rover to reroute to ensure its safety after it detected a big crater on Moon.

“It feels as though a child is playfully frolicking in the yards of Chandamama, while the mother watches affectionately. Isn’t it?” ISRO stated in a publish on microblogging website X.

ISRO on Thursday additionally stated that one other instrument onboard the Pragyan rover of Chandrayaan-3 has confirmed the presence of Sulphur (S) on Moon, via one other method.

In a publish on X, ISRO stated the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectroscope (APXS) has detected sulphur, in addition to different minor components.

“This discovering by Ch-3 compels scientists to develop recent explanations for the supply of Sulphur (S) within the space: intrinsic?, volcanic?, meteoritic?,……?.” the publish by ISRO on the microblogging website stated.

ISRO also shared a video which showed an automated hinge mechanism rotating the 18-cm tall APXS, aligning the detector head to be approximately 5 cm in proximity to moon’s surface.

What Is APXS & What Does it Do

Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) onboard rover ramped down to observe the lunar sample as seen in the video, which is captured by the lander imager.

APXS instrument is best suited for in-situ analysis of the elemental composition of soil and rocks on the surface of planetary bodies having little atmosphere, such as the Moon. It carries radioactive sources that emit alpha particles and X-rays onto the surface sample.

The atoms present in the sample in turn emit characteristic X-ray lines corresponding to the elements present. By measuring the energies and intensities of these characteristic X-rays, researchers can find the elements present and their abundances.