Bangalore: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has short listed experiments of five nations including the US, UK and Sweden for a slot on India's unmanned moon mission to be undertaken by 2006-07.

"We have short listed scientific experiments from researchers in five countries: US, UK, Sweden, Bulgaria and Germany. We will finalise the right partners by December," ISRO sources said in Bangalore today (Nov 15, 2004).

India plans to put a 525 kg orbiter using its workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket 100 kms over the moon aiming to explore more about the earth's satellite.

ISRO had allotted 10 kgs and 10 Watt of power for space agencies of other nations and had invited international bids, which evoked 15 responses from 10 nations.

"The best suited proposals have been short listed. We have to find whether they finally fit into our mission payload," sources said.

The experiments are: Chandrayan-I X-ray spectrometer (CIXS-II) from Britain; Near Infra-red spectrometer (SIR) from Germany; Sub-ked Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA) from Sweden in collaboration with ISRO's Space Physics Laboratory; Radiation Dove Monitoring Experiment (RADOM) from Bulgaria and Mini-Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR) from America.

ISRO officials will hold final talks with scientists of these projects at the International Lunar Conference from November 21 to 25 in Udaipur before zeroing in on projects that will form part of the Chandrayaan-1 mission.

India's moon mission is aimed at expanding the scientific knowledge about the moon, upgrading India's technological capability and providing challenging opportunities for planetary research to the younger generation.

ISRO officials said a three-dimensional atlas of regions of scientific interest of the moon would be mapped with instruments on board the mission, besides exploring the lunar surface for elements such as Magnesium, Aluminium, Silicon, Calcium, Iron and Titanium.