Stewart David Nozette, the NASA scientist who has been arrested by FBI on charges of spying for Israel, was one of the lead scientists for the mini-SAR equipment that was carried by Chandrayaan-1.
The 52-year-old Nozette, held in a sting operation, is described on his web page on the NASA website as co-investigator for the mini-SAR on Chandrayaan-1. The Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar was one of the 11 instruments on board Chandrayaan-1, and sent some amazing photographs of the lunar surface before India’s first moon mission came to a premature end earlier this year.
Nozette’s photograph on the web page shows him at the Taj Mahal.
He was also principal investigator for a similar instrument on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that had given the first strong indications of the presence of water on the moon. On his web page, he says the possibility that water could exist on moon was what excited him most about exploring the moon. Incidentally, it was not mini-SAR but another US payload on Chandrayaan-1, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper or M3, that confirmed traces of water on moon.
Nozette has been charged with attempting to provide classified information to Israeli agents in exchange for money.
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