Indian Space Research Organization has now initiated a dialogue with its Russian counterpart to share work of Chandrayaan-2 which features a lander and a rover, reported Press Trust of India Thursday.
"Conceptual studies are in place. Overall configuration is finalized but the scientific experiments are yet to be finalized. It may take six months (for finalization," ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said in Bangalore.
"The lander will be from Russia. The Russian space agency is cooperating with us. The rover will be a joint development between Russia and India. Many of the scientific instruments (payloads on board Chandrayaan-2) will be from India," Nair said.
Chandrayaan-2 mission involves a lunar orbiting spacecraft and a lander and a rover on the moon's surface. Indian government has approved 86 million U.S. dollar budget for the Chandrayaan-2 venture, with seed money of 10 million U.S. dollar already in place.
India launched its first lunar mission spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 Oct. 22 which is now well on its way to moon without any glitch.
Chandrayaan-1 will orbit the moon at an altitude of 100 km, mapping topography and the mineralogical content of the lunar soil.
(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2008)
