Saturday, February 26 2005 17:02 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: US's National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) is in talks to place its scientific instruments on India's spacecraft that will undertake an unmanned mission to the moon in 2007, ISRO officials said in Bangalore today (Feb 26, 2005).

"We have also got interest from NASA to place their payload in our moon mission," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Satellite Centre director P S Goel told reporters in Bangalore.

Indian 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 including from NASA, Germany, Bulgaria, UK and Sweden, he said.

Goel said the American space agency was very keen in providing mini-synthetic apperture radar (MSAR) and spcetometre with 0.3 micron to 0.9-micron capabilities.

"We have begun discussions with them, but its implementation will depend on the bilateral agreements between India and US," he said.

ISRO had invited presentation on projects from five nations: US, UK, Germany, Bulgaria and Sweden for final approvals in December last at the lunar conference in Udaipur.

Goel said ISRO has selected the Bulgarian payload of radiation monitoring equipment in the spacecraft and two more payloads from European nations.

ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said India's payload building was under progress and on time, while ISRO was awaiting acquisition of land outside Bangalore to establish the ground station.

He said the land had been identified and ISRO, Electronics Corporation of India Ltd and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) were in the process of designing indigenously a 34 metre giant antenna for receiving signals from the moon mission and also for future planetary missions.