Article Posted on : - Sep 27, 2009

An artist's conception of Chandrayaan-II rover on the moon.

MUMBAI (PTI): India's second mission to moon ‘Chandrayaan II’, expected to be launched in 2013, has many challenges for scientists and engineers, mission director M Annadurai has said.

“Chandrayaan II will not be just a probe. It will be landing on moon and is an incrementally and technically challenging mission for Indian scientists,” Annadurai said in an interactive session with students at the South Indian Education Society (SIES) college at Sion here.

The fact that water molecules have been confirmed on the lunar surface, especially on the sunlit areas, and their origin is not external sources like meteors (new postulate), it has become important to seek more exploration and Chandrayaan II will be landing on moon to collect more data on it, he said.

Asked whether the scientists involved in Chandrayaan I project would work for Chandrayaan II, he said “yes” and added that even the same participants from abroad will be in the mission.

Interest has been shown by other countries like Russia and “there is a chance of Russia participating in Chandrayaan II mission,” he said.

When asked how long it will take to analyse all the data collected from Chandrayaan I mission, Annadurai said it will take at least two to three and a half years for complete analysis.