Chandrayaan-1 will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh early Wednesday morning. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C11, which will launch Chandrayaan-1spacecraft has already been moved to the launch pad on Friday evening. Chandrayaan-1 is India's first mission to moon.

Indian spacecraft will try to unravel moon's origin

India's lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1, will try to unravel the moon's origins as it scouts for minerals and water there, says project director M Annadurai.

Chandrayaan, slated for an October 22 launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, would bolster international space cooperation by carrying 11 scientific devices — six of them from European and American organisations, while it orbits 100 km above the moon.

One of the lunar orbiter's key missions will be to map the moon. "During the two-year expedition, the 11 devices will be used to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far side of the moon," Annadurai said.

The maps will have a high resolution of 5 to 10 metres, he added.

Annadurai said the chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface will show where elements such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, iron and titanium are to be found.

"Simultaneous photo, geological and chemical mapping will enable indentification of the different geological units, which will test the early evolutionary history of the moon," he said. They will also help determine the nature of the lunar crust, he said.

The lunar probe will also look for water-ice in the permanently dark polar regions of the moon which may be as cold as 50 to 70 degrees Kelvin (about minus 223 to minus 203 degrees Centigrade) , he said.