'Lunar dust is dark. The disturbances left by the spacecraft and the rovers have caused disturbances which are easily distinguishable. The disturbed surface is bright,' Chauhan pointed out.

He said that the images sent back by Chandrayan-1 adequately debunked conspiracy theories that the Apollo 15 mission was a hoax.

'Chandrayan's images serve as an independent corroboration that can help dispel doubts about the NASA mission,' he contended.

Chauhan, however, admitted that while Chandrayaan's low resolution camera was not equipped to capture images of the footprints left behind by first astronauts on the moon - Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin - a lunar reconnaissance orbiter equipped with a high resolution camera launched by NASA could capture the images in the near future.