India and US agreed for Future Cooperation in Moon and Mars Missions

India and the US in the Month of March 2013 agreed for cooperation on future missions to the Moon and Mars after successful collaboration in Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission.

The highly successful Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission which was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in October 2008 led to strong evidence of the presence of lunar water.

So, In light of the Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission NASA and ISRO agreed to explore further cooperative space exploration work, including future missions to the Moon and Mars.

The scientist from both the working group of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) agreed to continue discussions in planetary science and Heliophysics to identify areas of potential cooperation.

The value of mutual cooperation was well reflected, it can be supported from the fact that with the addition of two NASA instruments on the successful Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission, led to significant discoveries about lunar surface characteristics.

The existing cooperation, in the use of US and Indian earth observation satellite data, helped in producing information yielding a broad range of societal benefits including improved weather and monsoon forecasting, disaster management and response, improved agricultural and natural resource use and better understanding of climate change.