India`s lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1, will try to unravel the moon`s origins as it scouts for minerals and water there, according to project director M. Annadurai.When Chandrayaan is launched on October 22 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, about 80 km from Chennai, it will boost international space cooperation by carrying 11 scientific devices, six of them from European and American organisations, to study the earth`s nearest celestial neighbour while it orbits 100 kms above the moon.
One of the lunar orbiter`s key missions will be to map the moon. `During the two-year expedition, the 11 devices will be used to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far side of the moon,` Annadurai said. The maps will have a high resolution of 5 to 10 metres, he added.
Annadurai said the chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface will show where elements such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, iron and titanium are to be found.
