NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s moon rover confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected a number of different components close to the lunar south pole because it searches for indicators of frozen water practically per week after its historic moon touchdown, India’s area company stated Tuesday.

The rover’s laser-induced spectroscope instrument additionally detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon on the lunar floor, the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, stated in a put up on its web site.

The lunar rover had come down a ramp from the lander of India’s spacecraft after final Wednesday’s touch-down close to the moon’s south pole. The Chandrayan-3 Rover is predicted to conduct experiments over 14 days, the ISRO has stated.

The rover “unambiguously confirms the presence of sulfur,” ISRO stated. It is also trying to find indicators of frozen water that might assist future astronaut missions, as a possible supply of ingesting water or to make rocket gas.

The rover additionally will research the moon’s environment and seismic exercise, ISRO Chairman S. Somnath stated.

On Monday, the rover’s route was reprogrammed when it got here near a 4-meter-wide (13-foot-wide) crater. “It’s now safely heading on a new path,” the ISRO stated.

The craft strikes at a sluggish pace of round 10 centimeters (4 inches) per second to reduce shock and injury to the car from the moon’s tough terrain.

After a failed try to land on the moon in 2019, India final week joined the United States, the Soviet Union and China as solely the fourth nation to realize this milestone.

The profitable mission showcases India’s rising standing as a know-how and area powerhouse and dovetails with the picture that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making an attempt to undertaking: an ascendant nation asserting its place among the many international elite.

The mission started greater than a month in the past at an estimated value of $75 million.

India’s success got here simply days after Russia’s Luna-25, which was aiming for a similar lunar area, spun into an uncontrolled orbit and crashed. It would have been the primary profitable Russian lunar touchdown after a niche of 47 years. Russia’s head of the state-controlled area company Roscosmos attributed the failure to the lack of understanding as a result of lengthy break in lunar analysis that adopted the final Soviet mission to the moon in 1976.

Active for the reason that Nineteen Sixties, India has launched satellites for itself and different nations, and efficiently put one in orbit round Mars in 2014. India is planning its first mission to the International Space Station subsequent yr, in collaboration with the United States.