Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is expected to release the images taken by Moon Impact Probe (MIP) after it detached from the orbiting Chandrayaan-1. India's first unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan-1 landed on lunar surface at 8:31 IST on November 14, 2008. After detaching from the spacecraft, the MIP and other scientific instruments have already started their experimentation. The MIP has taken images of Chandrayaan's landing, of which the ISRO has released two images.

 

ISRO has received several images from MIP and Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) operating in lunar orbit. According to sources, the scientists are analyzing about 3200 images at ISRO's Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Center.  Some pictures were taken very close to the lunar surface. It is believed that these images will help the scientists to find the prospectus of life on the lunar surface.

 

Talking about the images, Deputy Director of the sensor development area at the Space Applications Centre, A.S. Kiran Kumar said that the full set of 3,200 pictures will also be made public after some analyses. He said that the pictures sent by scientific cameras are of very high resolution and can not found any where.

 

China released a three-dimensional map of the lunar surface with data from its Chang'e-1 mission while Japan is also releasing very clear pictures of the lunar surface. When asked about those images, A.S. Kiran Kumar stated that the images from Indian scientific camera are far better than that of China and Japan. He added that the images from both the countries will be dominated by that of MIP in terms of resolution.