The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched Chandrayaan-1, its first mission to the moon on October 22, 2008 from the East Coast of India.

	Planned trajectory of India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. Click on the image for a larger version.

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M³), provided by NASA, was one of six guest instruments on the spacecraft.  The goal of the M³ instrument was to map the mineral composition of the entire lunar surface at a high resolution.  M³ complements the capabilities of the other Chandrayaan-1 instruments, and fulfilled an essential need for remote compositional analysis of the Moon.

The M³ is a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer which has given scientists their first opportunity to examine lunar mineralogy at high spatial and spectral resolution.  It mapped the entire lunar surface from an altitude of 100 and 200 km at 140 m spatial sampling and 40 nm spectral sampling, with selected targets mapped at 70 m spatial and 10 nm spectral resolution.

M³ was launched aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 in October, 2008.  The mapping mission lasted ten months.  Global mapping was given top priority, and due to the premature ending of the mission, little data was acquired with the instrument’s higher resolution Target Mode.  Science analysis and public outreach and education activities will continue through November 2011.

This compositional information is important both for scientific and exploration purposes. A detailed characterization of lunar surface mineralogy has dramatically improved our understanding of the Moon's origin and geologic evolution, as well as the early development of the terrestrial planets (the rocky planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars).

Mission Timeline Click on the image for a larger version.