Chandrayaan-1 sends images of moon's coldest, darkest craters

New York, Jan 17 (PTI) Using a NASA radar flying aboard
India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists are getting their
first look inside the moon's coldest and darkest craters.

The Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic
aperture radar, has passed its initial in-flight tests and
sent back its first data, NASA said.

The images show the floors of permanently-shadowed polar
craters on the moon that aren't visible from Earth. Scientists
are using the instrument to map and search the insides of the
craters for "water ice".

"The only way to explore such areas is to use an orbital
imaging radar such as Mini-SAR," said Benjamin Bussey, deputy
principal investigator for Mini-SAR, from the Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory.

"This is an exciting first step for the team which has
worked diligently for more than three years to get to this
point," he said.

The images, taken on November 17, 2008, cover part of the
Haworth crater at the moon's south pole and the western rim of
Seares crater, an impact feature near the north pole.

Further data collection by Mini-SAR and analysis will
help scientists to determine if buried ice deposits exist in
the permanently shadowed craters near the moon's poles.

"During the next few months we expect to have a fully
calibrated and operational instrument collecting valuable
science data at the moon," said Jason Crusan, programme
executive for the Mini-RF Program for NASA's Space Operations
Mission Directorate in Washington.

Mini-SAR is one of 11 instruments on the Indian Space
Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 and one of two
NASA-sponsored contributions to its international payload.

The other is the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a
state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer that will provide the
first map of the entire lunar surface at high spatial and
spectral resolution.

Data from the two NASA instruments will contribute to
the agency's increased understanding of the lunar environment
as it implements America's space exploration plan, which calls
for robotic and human missions to the moon, the agency said.

Chandrayaan-1 was launched from India's Satish Dhawan
Space Center on October 21, 2008, and began orbiting the moon
on November 8. PTI DS
PMR