While some uncertainty continues to dog the future of the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Indo-US space agreement does not suffer from similar constraints. This became evident when, on May 8, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US, signed an MoU on the inclusion of two US scientific instruments on board India’s mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-I.

The Indo-US joint statement, signed this March, declared that both countries will move forward with agreements that will permit the launch of US satellites and satellites containing US components by Indian space launch vehicles. Also a mention was made about US interest in the Chandrayaan-I mission.

With the recent inking of this deal, a new phase in the ISRO-NASA relationship has begun. The ties go back almost 40 years. NASA helped India in the early ’60s to start their rocket programme at Thumba. However, the relationship rapidly chilled when India carried out its 1998 nuclear tests at Pokhran and faced US sanctions. This development affected ISRO’s progress considerably, but Indian scientists accepted the challenge and today the growth of space technology in India has come into its own. Now it is the US that requests India to carry its scientific probes on board an Indian moon mission.

India will carry two US scientific payloads along with its own five payloads on the Chandrayaan-I moon mission. The US will place mini-SAR (mini-synthetic aperture radar and spectrometer with 0.3 micron to 0.9-micron capabilities) to map the cold regions, and a moon minerology mapper. The radar will scan for ice deposits while the mapper will track the mineral and chemical composition of the moon. The US instruments were selected, on the basis of merit, of 16 firm proposals from all over the world received in response to ISRO’s announcement that there is such an opportunity available.

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