NASA Sends Two Critical Mapping Instruments to the Moon
This NASA payload on the Chandrayaan-I is important because it is the first time a joint technological initiative between the United States and India has occurred, especially one that occurs in a space venture. The ISRO’s mandate is the development of technologies that have a space connection, and how it applies to the development of India. With an employment rate of 20,000, the ISRO not does domestic payloads but also offers international launch services. ISRO launches its satellites using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and also the GSLV for geostationary satellites.
India’s ISRO is known for building about 45 satellites, including the IRS (Indian Remote Sensing) satellite series; the INSAT (Indian National Satellite) satellite series; the GSAT series (launched using GSLV) and METSAT I (launched by PSLV). The present unmanned lunar mission of the Chandrayaan I includes a lunar orbiter in addition to an impactor, launched by a modified version of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
ISRO selected Carle Pieters, an American geologist, as an investigator for the Chandrayaan-I project, that was funded by NASA yet selected by ISRO. The Professor in the Dept. of Geological Sciences, Brown University, will lead a team of US scientists to map a mineral composition of the moon through the “state-of-the-art Moon Mineralogy Mapper, called Mm, also referred to as “M-cube.”
Revealing the closely guarded information about her Chandrayaan-I selection, geologist Carle Pieters told leading Indian news group, the Hindustan Times, in an exclusive interview: “I feel honored that the project, funded by NASA, has been selected by the ISRO. I’m really excited to work on this ambitious project.”
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 am and is filed under Public Relations, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
