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<b>India Moon Probe May Tote Water-Scouting Radar </b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->A lunar orbiter being built by India may be hauling a U.S. radar experiment designed to help unravel whether the Moon’s poles contain pockets of water ice.

The device is a small, lightweight, low-power imaging radar developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. It would be attached to Chandraayan-1, a lunar probe now being built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and headed for a September 2007 liftoff.

The miniature-synthetic aperture radar – mini-SAR --- would be delivered to ISRO as a flight module by February 2007. The miniature imaging radar instrument has been approved by ISRO for inclusion onboard Chandraayan-1, but awaits a U.S. State Department go-ahead.

A similar, but more high-tech radar unit could be added to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter as a technological demonstration, although the outcome of on-going discussion about this prospect is uncertain.

If flown on the NASA lunar orbiter, the radar could work in tandem with Chandraayan-1 in surveying the Moon for evidence of water ice...............
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