Bangalore/New Delhi: India’s maiden moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, may lift off on Oct 19 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, scientists associated with the odyssey indicated on Thursday.
"The tentative date is Oct 19," they said in Bangalore after completing all the work on the cuboid-shaped 590 kg spacecraft that will carry 11 payloads.
Meanwhile, the government on Thursday approved a sequel to the mission few years down the line."The union cabinet today gave its approval for undertaking lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 and upgrading the associated existing ground segment at a total cost of Rs425 crores," information and broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi told reporters in New Delhi after a cabinet meeting chaired by prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Chandrayaan-1 will be launched by indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle(PSLV) and will carry payloads of six foreign countries – the US, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria – apart from those of India.
Chandrayaan-1, estimated to cost nearly Rs400 crore, will beam back digital elevation maps of the moon and its mineral concentration, as also carry out environmental studies and measure radioactivity on the lunar surface.It will try to find the traces of atomic elements such as Radon, Uranium and Thorium.