RADHAKRISHNA RAO / BANGALORE
Prime minister also offers to build and launch low-cost satellites for other Asian nations
The Indian government has given the go-ahead for the country's ambitious project to launch the Chandrayan-1 lunar probe by 2008.
The mission will use an augmented version of the four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle to place the 525kg (1,155lb) lunar spacecraft into geostationary transfer orbit from where it will go into lunar orbit.
Costing an estimated 3.9 billion rupees ($85 million), the lunar mission was announced by Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his independence day address to the nation.
Dr K Kasturirangan, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), says the project is a "technologically and inspirationally challenging task, opening a new avenue for planetary exploration". The ISRO says Chandrayan-1 will be a stepping stone to more complex planetary probes.
A deep space network will be set up by ISRO for tracking, control and command of the lunar mission. "This facility, likely to be an extension of the existing tracking centre in Bangalore, is required to track weak signals from deep space through much larger dishes," says Kasturirangan.
The major objective of Chandrayan-1 is to chart a three dimensional atlas of the lunar surface, and carry out its detailed chemical mapping. The Indian lunar probe would feature a 5m (16.5ft)-resolution terrain mapping camera, a hyper spectral imager, a lunar laser ranging instrument and low- and high-energy x-ray spectrometers.
Instruments weighing up to 10kg from other countries and organisations may also be carried. ISRO sources say requests have been received from the European Space Agency and the German and Canadian space agencies.
Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee says India is ready to build and launch low-cost satellites for the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations. Thailand, which already has a ground station to receive resources data direct from India's IRS series earth observation spacecraft, is interested in expanding co-operation with India on remote-sensing satellites.Source: Flight International
