BANGALORE, India, (Reuters) – India terminated its  first mission to the moon yesterday, a spokesman for the  national space agency said, a day after scientists lost all  contact with an unmanned spacecraft orbiting the moon.

“Our efforts to establish contact have failed. The mission  has been terminated,” said S. Satish, spokesman of the Indian  Space Research Organisation (ISRO). “There was no point  continuing with the mission.”

Communications with the Chandrayaan-1 craft broke down early  on Saturday. The cause of the malfunction is being investigated.

The $79 million mission was launched amid national euphoria  last October, putting India in the Asian space race alongside  rival China and reinforcing its claim to be considered a global  power.
A vehicle landed on the moon a month later and sent back  images of the lunar surface.

But a crucial sensor in the main craft, orbiting the moon,  malfunctioned in July, raising fears that the two-year mission  might have to be curtailed.

One of the mission’s main tasks was to look for Helium 3, an  isotope which is very rare on earth but could be an energy  source in the future in nuclear fusion.

Satish said preparations had already begun for  Chandrayaan-2, also an unmanned mission to the moon, which India  hopes to launch by 2012.

This would be a step toward achieving the ISRO’s goal of  sending a manned mission into space in four years’ time and  eventually sending a spacecraft to Mars.