Chandrayaan-I, in a joint experiment with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of NASA tracked the presence of ice in the dark crater of the moon’s North Pole. ISRO stated that the "unique bi-static experiment was carried out jointly when Chandrayaan and Orbiter came closer while orbiting over the lunar North Pole where the permanently shadowed crater is located1."

The craft used the on-board miniature synthetic frequency device along with instruments abroad the NASA orbiter to ascertain the presence of water ice. Data from the Orbiter was first downloaded by the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), whose ground stations were tracking the trajectory of craft. ISRO’s Deep Space Network (DSN) located in Bylalu 40 kms from Bangalore picked up the same data later.

• 1. “India's lunar craft hunts for ice on moon with NASA orbiter,” Hindustan Times, August 22, 2009, at http://www.hindustantimes.com/Chandrayaan-1-nbsp-hunts-for-ice-on-moon-w...