CHANDRAYAAN – 1: India’s Mission to the Moon
On 15th August 2003, India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced “Our country is now ready to fly high in the field of science. I am pleased to announce that India will send her own spacecraft to the moon by 2008. It is being named Chandrayaan-1″.
Chandrayaan means Moon Craft, in Sanskrit.
Now, India is all set to launch its first unmanned mission to moon, CHANDRAYAAN-1 on Wednesday, 22nd October 2008. It will be launched from The Satish Dhawan Space Centre, about 10 minutes after sunrise using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The objective of this 3.8 Billion (INR), (US$ 83 Million) mission is to survey the lunar surface, at least for a period of two years, to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-D topography. 1.5 meter cuboid shaped lunar craft will be orbiting around moon, about 100 KM above the lunar surface over a period of two years.
Chandrayaan will be carrying 11 payloads.
1. Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC)
2. Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI)
3. Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI)
4. High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX)
5. Moon Impact Probe (MIP)
6. Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS)
7. Smart Near-IR Spectrometer (SIR-2)
8. Sub Kev Atom reflecting Analyser (SARA)
9. Radiation Dose Monitor Experiment (RADOM)
10. Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR)
11. Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3)
Out of these eleven payloads, first 5 are designed and developed in India by Indian Scientists, 3 from European Space Agency, two from United States and one from Bulgaria.
People from the lowest to the highest level are working round the clock with the great excitement for the success of this complex mission.
Wishing ALL THE BEST for the successful execution of India’s 1st mission to moon.
Click on the following link to watch the interesting video about Chandrayaan.
S.H.A.A.N.Y.A 