Overview of Chandrayaan-1 TMC and HySI data utilisation (CH1-AO)

Space Applications Centre (SAC), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Space (DOS), Government of India, declares an “Announcement of Opportunity (AO)” to carry out scientific research by utilisation of Chandrayaan-1 science data from Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and Hyperspectral Imager (HySI) instruments.

Chandrayaan-1 has been the first Indian lunar mission launched on 22nd October, 2008 and was designed to study the lunar surface in terms of photo-geology, chemical and mineralogical mapping, elemental abundance, radiation environment and exploration of Polar Regions of the Moon. The satellite had 11 instruments onboard which were selected to meet the specific science objectives.

The indigenous payloads on Chandrayaan-1 were TMC (with 5m resolution and 20km swath), HySI (spectral resolution of 15 nm and spatial resolution of 80 m with a swath of ~20 km), Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) and High-Energy X-ray spectrometer (HEX) and a Moon Impact Probe (MIP) to impact on a predetermined location on the lunar surface.

The data provided by the instruments onboard Chandrayaan-1, have been extensively used to pursue questions related to lunar science and applications of remotely sensed data to understand early history of lunar evolution. During the last seven years, a significant contribution to newer aspects of lunar geosciences has been addressed using data provided by Chandrayaan-1 instruments. A large number of lunar science studies initiated by Indian researchers, in particular, morphology, surface age determination and composition of the lunar surface, studies on the possible presence of magmatic as well as exogenic water on the Moon have provided enhanced thoughtful views regarding lunar evolutionary processes.

Data from the imaging payloads from SAC, i.e., TMC and HySI are meant to address various research topics, primarily for compositional and photo-geological mapping towards understanding the mineralogical and crustal evolutionary processes on the Moon. TMC mapped the lunar surface in panchromatic mode and provided the topography of the lunar surface, which is useful for morphological and morphometric studies. HySI mapped the lunar surface in 0.42-0.96 µm spectral range (64 spectral bands) for extracting the broad mineralogical/lithological information.

The TMC and HySI datasets from Chandrayaan-1 mission is available at the Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) website (http://www.issdc.gov.in).

This AO is open to scientific community for submitting research proposals towards utilisation of data from TMC and HySI payloads in the broad categories like compositional and geomorphological mapping, surface age determination etc (see section 5.0 for further details). Integrated studies of Chandrayaan-1 payload data with other international missions e.g. Kaguya, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in the data gap regions of TMC and HySI can also be undertaken.

It should be noted that selected project proposals through this AO which are from within India will be provided limited financial support towards meeting the salary of a research student, computational facility, contingencies and limited travel to attend Project meeting and workshops. The project duration will be for a period of three years. Therefore, the project student should be appointed either in the first year (preferably) or during the second year. It is expected that the PIs are having the softwares related to remote sensing data analysis (computational facilities). SAC can extend the support on the computational (software) facilities, whenever required. Principal Investigators (PI) will also be provided with relevant TMC and HySI data sets at no cost for selected regions on the Moon.

Who can submit a Proposal?

Proposals could be submitted by individuals or a group of scientists and academicians belonging to recognized institutions, universities, planetaria and government organisations of India. Only those having at least a minimum remaining service of four years before superannuation are eligible to lead the project as PI/Co-PI. The proposals must be forwarded through the Head of the Institution, with appropriate assurance for providing necessary facilities for carrying out the projects under this AO programme.