Article Posted on : - Jan 27, 2009

View of moon generated using Chandrayaan-1 TMC imagery of Nov 23 2008. Crater with depth of 400 metre. ISRO photo

BANGALORE (PTI): Key scientists behind the Chandrayaan-1 mission are gathering here on Thursday for the first time since the October 22 launch of India's maiden moon exploration to analyse preliminary data generated using payloads on board.

The daylong session at ISRO Satellite Centre here assumes significance in view of some encouraging findings thrown up after India's historic moon odyssey.
Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation G Madhavan Nair said the agency has invited the scientists and expects representation from scientists behind Indian payloads (scientific instruments) as well those from guest instruments, including from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Chandrayaan-1 has 11 instruments on board -- five from India, three from ESA (one of which is developed jointly with India and other with Indian contribution), one from Bulgaria and two from the US.

An ISRO official said, "It will be a closed-door meeting. The scientists will analyse data from preliminary findings". Senior ISRO scientist George Joseph would chair the session.

Preliminary findings from the data generated by three instruments on board Chandrayaan-1 -- the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), Mini-SAR and the Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (CIXS) -- are encouraging.