India's Chandrayaan-1 Moon Mission May End in January 2010 Space Agencies Told

Three international space agencies and scientific institutes that have their scientific payloads on board the moon mission Chandrayaan-1 will be told “unambiguously” to complete their data analyses “at the earliest,” a senior official at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told The Hindu. The first 100 days of the mission was a remarkable success according to this video report from India. Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation Dr G Madhavan Nair speaks to NDTV about Chandrayaan Mission in this video with most lunar mapping and mission objectives now complete.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences — who have developed six scientific experiments on board the mission — have been called to a meeting in India this coming September to discuss possible end of mission for Chandrayaan-1 in January 2010. Listen to a NPR report. The mission was launched on October 22, 2008.

Meanwhile, the $90-million (USD) Chandrayaan-2 is under development with possible nuclear-powered instruments. Chandrayaan-2 will have a Russian-made robotic rover vehicle that is the highlight of the forthcoming mission with the supporting Indian-made lunar orbital spacecraft. In 2013, the vehicle is expected to explore the lunar surface at the south pole, pick up samples, do on-site chemical analysis and send the data to the mother craft Chandrayaan-2, which will relay the same back to ISRO on Earth.