Bangalore: The United States has offered to place its scientific instruments on India's spacecraft that will undertake an unmanned mission to the Moon in 2007, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G Madhavan Nair said.

"There is wide response from Canada, the United States, Europe...even Indian scientists, some of them are there (who have submitted proposals to place scientific instruments),"Nair said today (Apr 11, 2004).

The American interest in India's maiden venture to the Moon comes soon after ISRO stated that it is open to take part in the United States' plans to send a man to the Moon.

"We have received about 20 to 25 proposals. They are under consideration. Maybe in another month's time, we should take a view on that (selecting proposal)," he said.

ISRO had set a March deadline for accepting scientific proposals and it plans to offer an outside organisation to place 20 kg instruments or sensors in return for sharing of data gathered on the lunar surface.

"It (selection) has to go with scientific merit rather than...," Nair said, when asked whether proposals from Indian scientists would be favoured over that from foreign countries.

The two-year moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, to be fired by an indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket will carry a low altitude (100 km) polar orbiter that has sensors which would beam scientific data on minerals and water on the moon surface.