The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has confirmed that sulfur has been detected in the site measurements of the south polar region of the Moon .
The measurements were made by the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument onboard Chandrayaan-3's moon rover, Pragyan.
The LIBS has also detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon on the lunar surface, the ISRO stated on its website. "Search for Hydrogen (H) is underway," the ISRO added.
The Indian space agency said the in-situ measurements confirmed the presence of sulfur in the region “unambiguously,” which was not feasible using the instruments onboard the orbiters.
"Already orbiters such as Chandrayaan-1, Chandrayaan-2 and American orbiters have done remote sensing and mapped the minerals on the surface of the moon. But it's a remote sensing taken from roughly about 100 km away [...] You need to land on the moon at least in few places, look for this data and see whether this data matches with the remote sensing data. If they match then our confidence on the remote sensing data will be very high," space scientist T.V. Venkateswaran told Indian media.
Scientists are also searching for signs of frozen water. If frozen water is detected, this could help astronauts in future space missions as a potential source of drinking water or to make rocket fuel.