Three instruments from European companies have now been delivered to the Indian Space Agency for that agency's Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon. The instruments have now been fully tested and integrated with the spacecraft. The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft is at the agency's facilities in Bangalore, India. Delivery for each instrument is completed once the hardware physically arrives, has been integrated with the spacecraft, and the software interfaces are checked. The instruments include SIR-2, a near-infrared spectrometer, that was delivered in the first week of November last year. Then there's SARA, (Sub-kilo electron volt Atom Reflecting Analyzer), which was delivered on April 8th of this year. Europe’s third contribution is now complete as the Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS), the third instrument, was tested and integrated with the spacecraft on 22 August.




SIR-2 will survey the Moon’s geological composition and the effect of space weathering on its surface. Data from the instrument will be used to study the formation of the structures that exist on the Moon. SIR-2 is led by the Max-Planck Institute for Solar System science. This instrument builds upon the infrared spectrometer (SIR), which flew on SMART-1. The combination of the improvements made and the low orbit of Chandrayaan-1 will enable superior scientific measurements. SARA, led by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, and developed with hardware contribution from the Space Physics Laboratory at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, India, will measure the resulting atomic emission from interactions of the solar wind with the Moon’s surface. X-ray Spectroscopy of the Moon, the objective of C1XS, will yield information on the origin and evolution of our planet’s natural satellite. C1XS builds upon the legacy of the D-CIXS instrument that flew on board SMART-1, and consists of significant upgrades based on the experience gained with ESA’s lunar mission. C1XS has been developed in collaboration between Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, U.K., and the ISRO Satellite Centre, with support from ESA.