India Awaits Approval For Chandrayan Lunar Mission

MOONDAILY

Mumbai, India (SPX) Dec 02, 2005
India is awaiting clearance from the Bush administration for finalising an American payload on top of India's first ever unmanned moon mission, Chandrayan, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G Madhavan Nair said on Friday.

"We have already selected two (European) payloads for Chandrayan and we have also got interest from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to place their payload in our moon mission. But for this we need some government clearances from the US side," Nair told reporters here.

NASA plans to deploy mini-synthetic aperture radar (MSAR) and spectrometer with 0.3 micron to 0.9-micron capabilities in the Indian spacecraft for the experiments.

ISRO has already selected two European payloads for the mission and NASA expressed its willingness to join hands with ISRO in Chandrayan, he said.

ISRO's 525-kg Orbiter, scheduled for launch by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in 2007, would hover at 100 km over the moon to gather data on mineral resources and water.

The scientific data would also help address questions on life in other parts of the universe and the origin of the universe.

The $89 million project is India's first unmanned moon mission the orbiter is expected to last two years.

MOONDAILY

Apollo 2 Will Take Real Money To Emulate The Original

Honolulu HI (SPX) Dec 01, 2005
Many critics say that Mike Griffin's planned Moon program is too much like Apollo to excite anyone. The real problem is that it is not enough like Apollo to be affordable.