No man on the moon in India's mission

New Delhi: India's Moon Mission in 2008 will be to study the lunar terrain and not for placing a man on the moon, Parliament was told Thursday.

"There is no proposal for placing a man on the moon in 2008. However, it is planned to launch an instrumented spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, in 2008 to orbit around the moon," minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, Prithviraj Chavan, said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

"The objectives of this indigenous mission include high resolution imaging of lunar terrain and mapping of various chemicals and mineralogical constituents over its surface," the Rajya Sabha was informed.

The approved cost of the mission is Rs 3.86 billion.