Did you know India is preparing a moon mission?

India, if you haven't heard, is working on a lunar rover. It plans to send the thing to the moon in 2008, to search for minerals deposits:

Chandrayaan-1 would orbit the lunar surface pole-to-pole for two years in a bid to conduct the first comprehensive mineral scanning and record high-resolution, 3D maps of the entire lunar surface.

I'm envious; we should be doing that.

Chandrayaan-1 is India’s first scientific mission to moon. The mission is aimed at expanding the scientific knowledge about the moon, upgrading India’s technological capability and providing challenging opportunities for planetary research to the younger generation. The scientific objectives of Chandrayaan-1 are the high resolution remote sensing of the moon in the visible, near infrared, low energy X-ray and high-energy X-ray regions for preparing a 3-dimensional atlas of regions of scientific interest with a high spatial and altitude resolution of 5-10 m and chemical mapping of the entire lunar surface for elements such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, iron and titanium with a spatial resolution of 10 km and elements of high atomic numbers.

Details at PUNE Newsline.