Chandrayaan-II mission to be completed by 2012-13

Bangalore: Chandrayaan-II moon mission, which will help in analysis of mineral composition and undertake terrain mapping of the moon, will be completed by 2012-13, project director of Chandrayaan Dr M Annadurai said today.

"The Rs425-crore project will be completed by 2012-13. As opposed to Chandrayaan-1 which was a moon orbiter, in Chandrayaan-II, the two moon rovers will actually land on the moon surface," and "Chadrayaan-II will consist of the spacecraft and a landing platform with two moon rovers, one from India and one from Russia, which will land on the moon and move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do a chemical analysis and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above," Annadurai said.

Annadurai said the Chardrayaan-I which was the 70th satellite to go on the moon "created history with discovery of water there (moon)".

"The Rs386-crore project (Chandrayaan-I) which took four-and-a-half years to be completed has provided 6 terabits of data which will take the scientists three years to mull over," he said.

Annadurai gave the credit of Chandrayaan-I success to the "teamwork of the 3,000 scientists who worked tirelessly on the project".

"The students of today have the capacity to lead the world in 2020 through innovation", he said.