India mulling deeper exploration of water on moon

Euphoric over finding traces of water by a Chandrayaan payload, confirmed by NASA's spacemate onboard the country's maiden moon mission, India is mulling exploring lunar surface deeper for water in its next Odyssey.

"What data we have got is really exciting. We want to see what further additions we can make to Chandrayaan-II's payload. We will definitely revisit the scientific objectives", Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair told reporters here.

ISRO was exploring a "mid-course correction" of the Chandrayaan-II's objectives, Nair said a day after the discovery of evidence of traces of water was announced by NASA in Washington and ISRO here.

Nair said ISRO was considering going deeper during Chandrayaan II, like landing a rover and drilling the surface to detect if there was any presence of water underneath the moon's surface.

"I think there is a strong interest that we should have more instrumentation for water. But we will look at it," the top scientist said.

Asked if Chandrayaan-II mission would be advanced, he said, "Moon has become exciting following the findings of water. But we cannot rush through the second mission. We will stick to the time line of 2013."