India Approves Moon Mission: "India Approves Moon Mission
By K.S. Jayaraman
Special to SPACE.com
posted: 04:15 pm ET
19 August 2003"

NEW DELHI, India -- India will send a spacecraft to the moon by 2008, prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in his Independence Day address to the nation Aug. 15. The announcement has put an end to suspense over the fate of the roughly $100 million project of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) that was waiting for a formal sanction for over eight months.

The mission -- named Chandrayan-1 -- foresees placing a 1150 lb. (525 kilogram) satellite in a polar orbit 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the moon. The spacecraft will be launched by a modified version of India’s indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The lunar orbiter will be designed to operate for two years.

"This mission will provide a unique opportunity for frontier scientific research," ISRO said in a statement. "It is expected to be the forerunner of more ambitious planetary missions in the years to come, including landing robots on the moon and visits by Indian spacecraft to other planets in the solar system."


Chandrayan-1’s aim, according to the study group that recommended the mission, is to obtain a chemical map of the entire lunar surface. The data from the mission will be used to create a 3-dimensional atlas of regions of interest using high-resolution remote sensing in the visible, near infrared, low and high-energy X-ray regions.

Observations using the X-ray spectrum and stereographic coverage of most of the moon’s surface at a ground resolution of 5 meters is designed to provide new insight in understanding lunar surface processes, according to ISRO. The areas selected for a focused study are the north and south polar regions (believed to contain ice) and the lunar South Pole’s Aitken basin -- an ancient crater impact area.

At the end of the mission ISRO expects to provide the scientific community an improved model of the moon’s gravity. This would be made possible with the highly accurate measurements of moon’s topography by a lunar laser ranging instrument and the digital elevation model derived from 3-D imageries obtained by the terrain mapping stereo camera.

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