'Chandrayaan-2 will try to get details about water on moon'

G Madhavan Nair, chairperson of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has played a key role in the design and development of the four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the workhorse of ISRO. The PSLV launched the Indian mooncraft, Chandrayaan-1 on its journey to the moon. The mission has won worldwide acclaim after one of its foreign payloads, NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, discovered water molecules. Nair spoke to Srinivas Laxman:

What's the impact of the discovery on our space programme?

The discovery of water has really reinforced India's position as a growing space power. Its status has considerably gone up and this is evident from the several congratulatory messages which we have received from different parts of the world and the various space agencies. We will be getting more and more significant data.

What's the next step?

In the mooncraft there are a number of supporting instruments. These will be used for further confirmation of the presence of water molecules. This whole process is expected to take three to six months. In addition, we are also eagerly awaiting the results from NASA's LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) spacecraft that will crashland at Cabeus, a crater near the moon's south pole, on October 9. This mission is also expected to search for water ice.

On Friday, you said it was ISRO's Moon Impact Probe (MIP) which crashlanded near the Shackleton Crater in the lunar south pole on November 14, 2008, that first detected signs of water. Why was this important fact not publicized earlier?

The MIP first detected signals of water while it was descending towards the lunar surface on November 14. Since it was a short duration flight we could not make any positive announcement that it had detected signals of water until we got firm proof and confirmation. This took about 10 months and now that we have concrete evidence about the presence of water we decided to announce the discovery by MIP.

In which part of the moon was water found?

In the polar regions.

What is the status of the second Indian moon mission, Chandrayaan-2?

We expect to launch it in 2013. It is a joint Indo-Russian mission that, apart from the orbiter, will have a lander and two rovers. This mission will also attempt to obtain more details about water.

Has ISRO started receiving scientific proposals for this moon flight?

Yes, suggestions have started coming in and the process of evaluating them will start soon.

Which is ISRO's next mission?

We are preparing for the launch of the Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle towards the end of December that will have an indigenous cryogenic engine. The rocket will carry the GSat-4 communication satellite.