Indian craft to deploy moon experiments

[Guest Glenn]

AFP

 

June 29, 2005

 

BANGALORE: India's first unmanned spacecraft will carry three European payloads on its journey to the moon, scheduled for 2007, to be used in experiments on the lunar surface, the head of the country's space program said this week.

 

The Indian Space Research Organisation signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Space Agency Monday to carry the additional payloads aboard India's Chandrayan-1 spacecraft, ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters.

 

The payloads will include instruments such as an X-ray detector, a particle detector and a multi-spectral imager.

 

ISRO is also in talks with the US National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) to carry a miniature imaging instrument to detect water ice in cold traps on the lunar poles up to a depth of a few metres, Nair said.

 

"We have the capabilities to develop and manage a mission that would orbit the moon and enable a series of observations and measurements using specific instruments," he said.

 

The 590kg Chandrayan-1 is expected to map the lunar terrain for minerals and conduct scientific experiments.

 

India has developed a tracking network to monitor the spacecraft while it is in orbit.

 

A special ground station is also being constructed near the southern city of Bangalore where ISRO is headquartered.