India's mission to moon by September '07

India's first mission to moon, Chandrayaan-1, is expected to be accomplished by September 2007, Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 project director M Annadurai said.

The government has approved over Rs 380 crore for the project to probe a 100 km polar orbit around the moon.

This will be the fourth mission internationally after the US, Russia and the European Space Agency.

"Chandrayaan-1 is devoted to high-resolution remote sensing of the lunar surface features in visible, near-infrared, X-ray and low-energy gamma ray regions. This will be accomplished using several payloads already selected for the mission. The mission is proposed to be a lunar polar orbiter at an altitude of about 100 km," said Annadurai.

"The mission will use indigenous spacecraft and launch vehicle of ISRO and is expected to have an operational life of about two years," said Annadurai.

ISRO has received proposals from various international scientific agencies for participating in the mission by providing suitable scientific payloads for Chandrayaan-1.

The objective of the mission is to carry out high-resolution mapping of topographic features, distribution of various minerals and elemental chemical species including radioactive nuclides covering the entire lunar surface using a set of remote-sensing payloads.

The new set of data would help in unravelling mysteries about the origin and evolution of the solar system in general and the moon in particular.

The objective also includes realising the mission goal of harnessing the science payloads, lunar craft and the launch vehicle with suitable ground support system including DSN station, integration and testing, launching and achieving lunar orbit of 100 kms, in-orbit operation of experiments, communication and telecommand, telemetry data reception, quick look data and archival for scientific utilisation by identified group of scientists, said S K Shivkumar, director, ISRO telemetry tracking and command network.

The specific area of study includes high-resolution mineralogical and chemical imaging of permanently shadowed north and south polar regions, search for surface or sub-surface water-ice on the moon, specially at lunar pole, identification of chemical end members of lunar high land rocks and chemical stratigraphy of lunar crust.

The Gujarat section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers organised a seminar on Indian mission to the moon, on Saturday at Ahmedabad Management Association.