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Chandrayaan-1 findings to be out in September
Data could confirm presence of water on the moon
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service

Bangalore, June 28
Data obtained by the Indian lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 is slated for release in the next three months. G Madhavan Nair, ISRO chairman, told The Tribune that an international conference was being organised to announce the findings of the Indian mission. “In another three months time the data obtained by Chandrayaan-1 will be out,” he said.

This image of the earth was taken by Chandrayaan-1 mission while on its way to the moon on October 29, 2008, from a height of 70, 000 km.

This puts the release of the first comprehensive account of the data collected by the Indian mission for September -- nearly one year since its launch from Sriharikota in October last year and one year before the mission comes to end.

The most important achievement of the mission may be in the direction of finding water in the moon. Returns from the mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) from the Peary crater near the Lunar North Pole have generated hope that there could be water inside the 78 km diameter hole on the lunar surface.

M Annadurai, ISRO scientist and project director of Chandrayaan-1, said the data sent by the SAR

suggested the possible presence of water ice in the moon. “The SAR imaged the never-before-seen interiors of some of the craters,” he said.

The SAR data is currently being analysed at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, USA. The C1XS X-ray camera (Spectrometer) on board the lunar orbiter is said to have detected the presence of magnesium, aluminium and silicon on the moon. C1XS recorded an X-ray signal from a region near the Apollo landing sites.

The detection is an important step in mapping the mineralogical composition of moon’s surface in order to study its origin and evolution.

An important objective of Chandrayaan 1 was “to harness the payloads, lunar craft and the launch vehicle with suitable ground support systems”. This goal of the mission has been a spectacular success so far.