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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/07/india_moon_probe/

Indian Moon mission is go for 22 October

Hi-tech survey gig for Chandrayaan-1

By Lester Haines

Posted in Science, 7th October 2008 12:53 GMT

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India is all set to launch its first unmanned Moon mission on 22 October - the Chandrayaan-1 [1] probe, which will over two years survey our satellite's surface with a rack of hi-res kit.

According to the BBC, the launch had been planned for April, but was knocked back due to "technical problems". The $83m mission involves input from six other countries, including the US. The European Space Agency has contributed three instruments to the total of 11 science payloads [2] on board.

These include the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) [3], designed to "map topography in both near and far side of the Moon and prepare a three-dimensional atlas with high spatial and altitude resolution"; the Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) [4] ("to provide ranging data for determining accurate altitude of the spacecraft above the lunar surface"); and the High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX) [5], which is described as "the first experiment to carry out spectral studies of planetary surface at hard X-ray energies using good energy resolution detectors".

Of course, you can't in all conscience send a spacecraft all the way to the Moon and not throw something at it, so Chandrayaan-1 is offering a piggyback to the 29kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP) [6] destined to, as the name suggests, "impact on the surface".

The means of getting Chandrayaan-1 aloft is India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle [7], which the Indian Space Research Agency says has "proved its reliability and versatility by scoring eight consecutive successes between 1994-2005 periods in launching multiple payloads".

Of course, as the BBC notes, the project has taken flak for being "over ambitious" and a "waste of resources" for a nation where "millions still lack basic services". Nonetheless, India's highly ambitious space programme includes dispatching a manned mission to the Moon "in the next few years". ®