Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for utilizing Chandrayaan-3 Lander and Rover payloads data for scientific analysis
Home / Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for utilizing Chandrayaan-3 Lander and Rover payloads data for scientific analysis

September 01, 2025

Introduction

The vision of Indian Space programme, initiated in 1960s, is to harness space technology for national development, while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration. Space science missions provide scientific and technological advancements and nurture interest in youth of the country towards science. The space science and exploration missions such as the Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission, AstroSat, Chandrayaan-2, Aditya-L1 and XPoSat missions generated valuable science data and scientific publications which provided value addition to existing knowledge about the Solar system and the Universe. One mission which stands as testimony to the capabilities and technical prowess of ISRO is the Chandrayaan-3, which achieved historic soft-landing in the Southern high latitudes of the Moon on 23rd August 2023, the day declared as National Space Day.

India’s efforts to study the Moon culminated with the launch of Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. It was having an orbiter and the Moon Impact Probe (MIP). It is a maiden mission with significant international collaboration. Discovery-class results such as detection of hydration on the surface, sub-surface and exosphere, mini-magnetospheres, interaction of solar wind on the lunar surface, buried lava tube etc. provided new perspectives about the Moon. The more comprehensive mission, Chandrayaan-2 was launched in 2019 having an Orbiter, lander and rover. Since the landing attempt was not successful, in-situ investigations could not be carried out. However, the Orbiter completed 6 years of remote-sensing and continues to study the Moon from polar orbit. Global high-resolution elemental maps, unambiguous detection of water, global exospheric dynamics, microflares during the quiet-Sun period are few salient results from this mission.

The data from Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter have been extensively used by Indian researchers to understand lunar surface and sub-surface, composition (elemental and mineralogy) and exosphere. These studies have provided enhanced thoughtful views regarding lunar evolutionary processes. ISRO expanded the science community by releasing data utilisation AO and currently 30 projects are running in various academic institutions. To strengthen the Indian science community for in-situ studies, Chandrayaan-3 Lander and Rover payloads data are made open to public and scientific proposals are solicited for scientific analysis.

In order to demonstrate landing on the Moon and to carry out in-situ studies, Chandrayaan-3 mission was launched on 14th July 2023. Post landing, the rover moved around the landing site and traversed a total of ~100m distance. Payloads on the Lander and Rover were deployed for in-situ investigations. The mission objectives were successfully accomplished and the payloads collected data pertaining to seismicity, thermo-physical properties, plasma environment and elemental composition of the landing region for one lunar day. The payload teams analysed the datasets and published in reputed peer-reviewed journals. The science data have been peer-reviewed by domain experts and released to public on 23rd August 2024. To access and browse the data from PRADAN portal of Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC), please visit the URL https://pradan.issdc.gov.in/ch3

Objective of the Chandrayaan-3 AO:

To enhance the science outcome of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO seek proposals from the national scientific community (outside ISRO/DOS) through this Announcement of Opportunity (AO), towards scientific analysis and utilisation of data from all experiments of Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover.

The AO is open to all faculty and researchers from recognized academia, research institutions, Universities, Colleges and government organizations of India.

  1. General guidelines for the proposal submission:

    2. The selection of the research proposal by a review committee depends a lot on the write-up of the proposal, novelty of the idea, innovative science and useful deliverables in terms of enhancing scientific knowledge. It is important for the proposer to understand the capability of the payload with respect to intended science. The instrumentation details of the payloads, which are similar to Chandrayaan-2 lander and rover payloads are published in the journal Current Science. In the last few months, a few publications have been in place by the Principal Investigators (PIs) of the payloads and their teams. These papers will serve as useful references. Proposer may also contact Principal Investigators (PIs) of the payloads for more details. The contact details are available at PRADAN page https://pradan.issdc.gov.in/ch3/contacts.xhtml of ISSDC of ISRO.

    Proposals shall be limited to around 10 - 15 pages in length on standard A4 size paper, typed double-spaced and in the prescribed format. Two hardcopies of the proposal prepared as per the formats given in Annexure-1, Annexure -2 and Annexure 3. The complete proposal needs to be forwarded by Head of the Institutions along with the seal. The hard copy of the proposal shall be sent to the following address:
    Director,
    Science Programme Office
    ISRO Head Quarters, Antariksh Bhavan,
    New BEL Road,
    Bangalore-560094

    The format for proposal includes a Declaration to be signed by the Principal Investigator and the Head of the Institution.

    The soft copy of the proposal has to be mailed to science[at]isro[dot]gov[dot]in with the subject Attn : Ch3 data AO. A proposal received without the forwarding letter signed by the Head of the Institutions will not be considered.

  2. Who can submit proposal:

    3. Proposals could be submitted by individuals or a group of scientists and academicians from Universities, Colleges, national institutions, outside ISRO/ DOS. Only those having a minimum remaining service of four years before superannuation are eligible to lead the project as Principal Investigator (PI). There could be multiple Co-PIs in the proposal, however, PI will be the focal point for all communications related to the proposal. The proposals must be forwarded through the Head of the Institutions, with appropriate assurance for providing necessary facilities for carrying out the project under this AO programme.

  3. Review of the proposal

    4. All the proposals will be evaluated by suitable review committee. In order to review and select the most optimum suite of proposals, the proposers may be requested to present their proposals online, as and when required. The PIs may have to revise the proposals based on the suggestions of the review committee and are expected to submit the revised proposals within stipulated time. The proposals based on maximally utilising Ch-3 data will be given more weightage, though the proposer can utilise other datasets from Ch-1 & 2 and international lunar missions data for validation. The project proposals should clearly indicate the payload data sets required. The data sets shall be accessed and downloaded from PRADAN webpage https://pradan.issdc.gov.in only. The decision of the review committee will be considered as final.

  4. Project duration:

    5. The project shall be completed within 3 years. Based on science deliverables and recommendation by the review committee, the project may be extended for one more year. Annual progress of all the projects will be reviewed by ISRO and comments will be provided for improving the project activities. PIs are also expected to publish the results in national/international peer reviewed journals and present their results in national/international conferences/symposia. The updates regarding the publications shall be sent to SPO for information.

  5. Support for the selected proposals:

    6. The selected project proposals through this AO will be provided limited financial support towards meeting the salary/fellowship of a Junior Research Fellow (JRF)/ research student, computational facility, national-level travel support for attending workshops/ conferences, contingencies and overhead charges.

    In addition, the PIs of the selected proposals are encouraged to take about maximum of three project Interns in the duration of the project. The duration of each project intern may be of 6 months and he/she may be in final year of M.Sc/ M.Tech/ B.E/ B.Tech. The project intern to be used only for Chandrayaan-3 payload data analysis. ISRO may provide limited funding support (of about Rs 10,000 per month) to the project intern as stipend.

    The PI of the selected AO proposals are encouraged to conduct data analysis workshops and outreach activities.

  6. Description of the Proposal

    7. The main part of the proposal should contain a summary (briefing the problem statement, objectives, methodology, deliverables of the project and the time schedule), followed by a detailed description of the objectives and the scientific rationale being addressed. The data requirement and the analysis methods should be highlighted. The methodology or approach to be followed, the expected results of the project must be presented. Targeted schedule for various milestones of the project must be indicated including the completion date.

  7. Personnel

    8. The project may engage joint efforts by several individuals from the institution(s) concerned. However, only one PI will be recognized per project. Other participants could be designated as “Co-Principal Investigators”. PI and Co-PIs shall provide Curriculum Vitae (CV) referring to educational qualifications, the work carried out in the related areas and list of recent publications. The PI is responsible for ensuring timely completion of the project. The assurance of necessary administrative and financial spending support to PI and Co-Investigators from Head of the Institution(s) is a must. Every project can appoint a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) as per RESPOND norms through advertisements and interview procedure which is duly followed by the host institute. The selection of JRF along with his/her educational qualifications, selection procedure, signed minutes of the interview etc. shall be forwarded to SPO. He/ She may be encouraged to take up Ph.D. In addition, the PIs of the selected proposals are encouraged to take about maximum of three project Interns in the duration of the project. The duration of each project intern may be of 6 months and he/she may be in final year of M.Sc/ M.Tech. The project intern to be used only for Chandrayaan-3 payload data analysis.

  8. Facilities and Equipment

    9. Describe available computer facilities, image analysis software packages and other equipments in the host institution or in sister concerns that are accessible for the project. Once approved, the computational facilities requested in the proposal shall be procured during the first year of the project.

Terms and Conditions

  1. ISRO reserves the right to scrutinize or reject any or all proposals received in response to this AO, or suggest a modification to the proposal.
  2. ISRO reserves the right to choose any project(s) proposals received in response to this AO, depending upon need, novelty of intended applications, innovative science, suitability, delivery and merits. The decision of ISRO shall be treated as final.
  3. ISRO reserves the right to revoke in part or in whole its support for a project at any time without assigning any reason.
  4. It shall be declared and ensured by the PIs of the selected project proposal under this AO, that any/all analysis conducted as part of this project shall not use any pirated/un-licensed copy of the analysis software used.
  5. All proposals will be reviewed by a review committee constituted by ISRO. PIs and their team shall cooperate with the members of the review committee for the review of their proposal.
  6. Scientific results obtained as part of the project proposal by PIs or any other, shall not be allowed to be used for marketing/business purposes without prior permission from ISRO. ISRO reserves the right to accord permission on such cases, considering the overall national interests.
  7. Any/ All Intellectual Property (IP) Rights such as patents, copyrights, design rights etc. acquired by the research academic/institute or the PI, through this project proposal, shall be jointly owned by ISRO and the research institute.
  8. Proposal shall give a declaration that if the proposal is selected for funding by ISRO, PI shall not submit the same proposal for funding support from other agencies.
  9. Any commercialization of such IP rights shall be done by the research institute only with the consent / permission of ISRO, on specific terms and conditions, which shall be determined on a case by case basis by ISRO as per its standard practices for such activities.
  10. The user will make available to the scientific community the salient results of the AO projects through publication in appropriate journals or other established channels. Acknowledgement of ISRO support/ funding must be made in all reports and publications arising out of the AO projects. Copies of all publications resulting from these research projects must be submitted to the Science Programme Office, ISRO HQ. All those who use the data are expected to register and download the data from ISSDC-PRADAN website. ISSDC to be duly acknowledged as per the format provided in the ISSDC website.
  11. The PI is required to submit yearly progress report during the duration of the project to the Science Programme Office, ISRO HQ. A detailed report is to be submitted during the mid-term and final reviews in soft copy form.
  12. General rules and guidelines of RESPOND
    1. The declaration contained in the proposal format must be signed by the PI and Head of the Institution (Annexure 3). Otherwise, the proposal will not be considered valid and will be rejected.
  13. Any update or modifications to this AO will be reflected in the revised AO which will be posted on ISRO site under ‘Latest News’. The proposers are requested to check the above URL periodically to keep themselves updated.

Schedule

Deadline for submission of proposals: October 21, 2025

Cover Page of the Proposal pdf icon 82 KB

Format of the Proposal pdf icon 151 KB

Format for Declaration pdf icon 83 KB