A team of scientists from the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration came to the country to review the preliminary design of India's maiden moon mission - Chandrayan 1, which will also carry an American payload, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair said on Saturday.
Indian spacecraft to fly to moon in 2007-08
"NASA scientists came recently. We had a preliminary design review and we hope, we will be carrying their payload along with Chandrayan," Nair told reporters in Mumbai.
ISRO has already selected three European payloads along with the Indian ones and the US space agency wanted to put two payloads as well, Nair said, adding that the move was aimed at maximising the international participation in Chandrayan and other space missions.
NASA plans to deploy mini-synthetic aperture radar and spectrometer with 0.3 micron to 0.9-micron capabilities in the Indian spacecraft for experiments. ISRO'S 525-kg orbiter, scheduled for launch by the polar satellite launch vehicle in 2007, would hover at 100 km over the moon to gather data on mineral resources and water, for the first time in India's history of space exploration.
The data collected through the US, European and the Indian payloads will be shared among each other. The $89 million project is India's first unmanned moon mission and the orbiter is expected to last for two years.
Nair said preparations for moon mission were in full swing and ISRO had started building instruments.
"Preliminary design has been completed. We are starting building the instruments and also the deep space tracking network," he said.
ISRO has already identified a place for deep tracking network at Tavekkere, about 45 km away from Bangalore. The space agency will also use some impactors to collect soil samples from the moon.
Chandrayaan-1 is aimed at expanding the scientific knowledge about the moon, upgrading India's technological capability and providing challenging opportunities for planetary research to the younger generation. The mission will also explore mineral, water and Helium-3 availability over the moon's surface.
Advanced scientific and technological missions were in the pipeline, creating bigger challenges for the younger generations, Nair said. However, there was a need to spread and promote fundamental knowledge of science in the student community in order to carry out such challenges in the future, he added.
