space craft
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India is the sixth country in the world to go for a lunar mission. Our maiden lunar space craft, Chandrayaan-1, has been successfully launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), and the journey has already begin on the morning of October 22 from Sriharikota.

The Indian mission is carrying 11 instruments that will work to generate a three-dimensional atlas of the moon.

The $100 million mission will search for ice-water around its poles. Further, the Indian moon mission will explore for Helium 3, which could fulfill the future energy needs.

One of the tasks for Chandrayaan 1 is to shoot a probe bearing the tri-colour on to the lunar surface, for the first time.

With moon as the first stepping stone, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will embark upon several deep space missions that include sending a lunar rover to the moon by 2012.

Yet another mission, Aditya, will be undertaken to study the sun. Other planned missions will be to the Mars and an asteroid.