India’s Chandrayaan-3 Rover Detects Sulfur During Mission at Moon’s South Pole
The Space Age “Gold Rush” for water, rare earth elements, and helium isotopes worth quadrillions of dollars begins!
Last week, we reported that India landed its Chandrayaan-3 mission safely on the moon’s unexplored south pole.
It’s rover has been busy since then, making some intriguing discoveries about the elements present on the lunar surface.
Chandrayaan-3 has detected sulphur in the moon’s soil, which an expert said could reveal more about the origins of our lunar neighbour.
It marks the first time sulphur has been found on the moon’s south ‘in situ’ – so in the place it exists, rather than detected from a distance by an orbiter, the country’s space agency said.
Chandrayaan-3 has also found aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen, while the search for hydrogen is now underway.
This development heralds the start of a Space Age “Gold Rush”, for rare elements that are needed for today’s technology.
Rather than being about national pride and establishing technological superiority, the likes of China, Russia, India and the US are now interested in the moon’s valuable resources and how they can be mined.
From rare Earth metals used in smartphones to helium that could perhaps provide an invaluable source of energy, the lunar surface is a multi-quadrillion-pound hotbed of unearthed riches.
And that includes H20.
Deposits of frozen water – which could be used not only for drinking but also broken down into hydrogen for fuel or oxygen to breathe – are scattered across the moon’s south pole.
An estimated $1.5 quadrillion worth of a rare helium isotope is on the moon. The isotope could be useful in getting nuclear fusion energy options in the future.
I am thrilled to report India also intends to launch a mission to the Sun, which will launch in the next few days.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced its first mission to the sun will launch on September 2.
A massive four-stage rocket is waiting to launch from an island on India’s eastern coast to deliver Aditya-L1 1.5 million miles to the sun to study solar winds, which can affect astronauts and technology.
…Aditya-L1, which means ‘sun’ in Sanskrit, is waiting patiently on the island of Sriharikota on India’s east coast inside the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle that is standing tall on the pad but is set to travel around one million miles from Earth.
The Aditya-L1 will be placed in a halo orbit around the sun-Earth system’s Lagrangian point 1 (L1), allowing the craft to observe the sun continuously.
L1 is an area in space where the gravity of the sun and the Earth balance each other out.
The region in space is also the orbit for NASA and the ESA’s Solar and Heliosphere Observatory, which has circled the sun since 1996 – a mission that scientists believe cost $1.27 billion.
I believe the Sun’s role in Earth’s climate climate is underappreciated. All data we can obtain from the solar missions will be extremely valuable…and a bargain when the cost of “net zero” fantasy compliance is calculated.
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Comments
So, we can expect to encounter Mephistopheles on the moon, too?
Mr Mephistopheles The Conjuring Cat?
This article’s author is completely missing the most valuable aspect of moon as a potential future home of all the “climate change” fanatics. It just might be the carbon dioxide-free future they all crave.
I have been reliably informed that the lunar rover’s mechanical arm is lubricated with pig fat.
The readers of this blog have.been reliably informed on a regular basis that you’re a blithering idiot.
And, I was about to conmen that had the Indian engineers had a sense of humor, they would’ve made the exterior of the rover look like a Hindustan Ambassador automobile. Those things were in production forever. But, someone might think it’s a blithering, idiot remark, so I won’t make it.
You’re one of the most enjoyable and witty commenters on the board!
Scientists should know that moving mass from one object in orbit about a central point to another orbiting the same point will affect the balance of every object orbiting the point, not to mention the intersection of extrapolar orbits.
Entropy rules the universe, Man hastens the affect.
L1 is not in the area where the Earth and the Sun’s gravity “balance each other out.” If that were the case, then the spacecraft would be moving in a straight line rather than in an orbit, and would end up in a highly elliptical orbit around the Sun.
L1 is the point at which the Earth’s gravity counteracts the Sun’s gravity just enough to allow a spacecraft to move at the same angular velocity as the Earth even though it is in a smaller orbit that would otherwise require a faster angular velocity.
Earth would gain mass from the Moon which would make the velocity slower and into an orbit with a greater radius?
That sounds disastrous!
Nope
The funny thing about the ISRO’s twitter feed?
The cultural humor and triumph of Indian memes are wholly opaque to me. The image of some man shouting while holding unidentifiable object in his hand.? Unfathomable.
3000 years into the future. After the 10th iteration of the rise and fall of man. An ape will be sitting at a desk wondering what the “shouting man” meme means.
These two Polish guys were talking about their space program one day.
One of them said: “We are sending astronauts to land on the sun”!
The other replied: “the sun? They will burn up, it’s too hot”
“Ah” said the first. ” No, we are sending them at night”
“The Space Age “Gold Rush” for water, rare earth elements, and helium isotopes… begins!”
This is like announcing that you found Phoenician shipwreck urns containing wheat… so urns with Phoenician donuts and chocolate cake are sure to be found soon!
Most of the elements this rover found are common low-atomic-weight junk elements that most of us who have wells have to take steps to filter OUT.
I mean, silicon. Come on. We have deserts and beaches full of the crap.
The moon isn’t the place to find “the good stuff.” It’s almost entirely lightweight slag.
You want heavy-metals heaven, hit the asteroids.
So, How ?? does helium produce energy—on Earth,,,,Helium is INERT.
There’s a perfectly good link in the article that explains the value of isotopic helium.
The whole question of how much the Moon contains and how easy it would be to confine and transport it is some starry-eyed scientist’s WAG.