The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has asked the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to build an orbiter that will provide the communication between the soil samples collected from the far side of the moon and the earth in 2016, according to ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan.
This joint venture between the ISRO and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, would be part of the MOONRISE mission planned by the NASA, reports "THE HINDU" on April 20, 2011. THE NASA MOONRISE MISSION would focus on the giant South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side, which lies between the Moon's South Pole and Aitken Crater, just 16^0 south of the Moon's equator for a soil sample return.
"This project is in the planning phase, alongside India's lunar mission programme centred on Chandrayaan-2," he said which will put a spacecraft in orbit around the moon by a Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) in 2013 in a joint mission with Russia. The spacecraft and the rover would be built by India, the lander would be built by Russian space engineers.
Reference: aquarius-project.blogspot.com
