14 DAY TRIAL // India's space agency signed an agreement with its American counterpart on Tuesday in Bangalore, to fly two US mapping devices during a mission to orbit the Moon in 2008.
Even though NASA does not expect to send its spacecrafts to the Moon too soon, this deal will enable US to conduct unmanned space missions there due to the low cost of Indian space-exploring plans.
The 89 million dollar mission paid by the Indian government that will last for two years will transport US scientific equipment to search for ice caps and map minerals within the shadow covered lunar side.
The joint venture between the two nations is also part of the Bush Administration plan to develop cooperation between the two countries, after the signing of the strategic partnership deal on civilian nuclear cooperation.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin stated that: "There was a period of time between our nations where, because of nuclear proliferation issues and other factors, the ability to cooperate on technical matters was less strong than it is today".