New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been invited to discuss its moon mission at a conference of Space Faring Nations tomorrow (May 28, 2004) at Beijing.

The American Planetary Society has convened this special meeting of space agencies that have either launched or are planning to launch missions to the moon.

The organisers said in a statement that the meeting would seek to promote international cooperation among India and other Space Faring Nations engaged in moon mission.

Representatives from the United States, China, Europe, Japan and India will discuss the ongoing and planned lunar missions in the context of planetary exploration, the statement said adding Narendra Bhandari of India's moon mission Chandrayaan-1 will participate in the meeting.

After three decades of being almost ignored, the Moon will soon become a busy place for robotic spacecraft. Europe's SMART-1 mission, a technology test of low-thrust ion propulsion, is currently on a 16-month journey to the Moon.

SMART-1 will measure the chemical composition of the lunar surface, including the Polar Regions.

Japan is developing two missions: Lunar-A, an orbiter that will fire penetrators into the surface, and SELENE, an orbiter with two sub-satellites. China has described a lunar programme with two missions - an orbiter and a lander and India is planning a lunar orbiter.