What are the reasons that dictated the choice of 11 scientific instruments on board Chandrayaan-1?
Our main objective was to provide a systematic chemical and mineral mapping of the entire moon. Over and above that, we are to look for resources on the moon. We made our instruments basically covering these objectives. The instruments we selected from abroad will technically overlap the returns from our instruments so that we can compare the results. That is why we have payloads for the optical region, near infrared region, low energy X-ray, high energy X-ray and even radio regimes. We received 26 proposals from abroad. We also looked at the real competence of each organisation in terms of the instruments they projected and their ability to match our schedule. On these merits, we selected two instruments from the U.S. and four from Europe [including one from Bulgaria]. Why is there so much of stress on confirming the presence of water-ice on the moon? In case we have to start a human civilisation beyond the earth, water is the minimum requirement. The second [objective] is the possibi
