Moon News  
Indian Tricolour Reaches Lunar Surface

India's very first attempt to send a probe to the moon's surface from its spacecraft orbiting the moon has been successfully concluded.
by Staff Writers
Bangalore, India (SPX) Nov 14, 2008
In a historic event, the Indian space programme achieved a unique feat today (November 14, 2008) with the placing of Indian tricolour on the Moon's surface on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday. The modern Indian space programme was initiated in 1962 when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of India. The point of MIP's impact was near the Moon's South Polar Region.

The Indian flag was painted on the sides of Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, that successfully hit the lunar surface today at 20:31 hrs (8:31 pm) IST. This is the first Indian built object to reach the surface of the moon.

Weighing 34 kg at the time of its launch onboard Chandrayaan-1, the box shaped MIP carried three instruments - a video imaging system, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer.

The video imaging system was intended to take the pictures of the moon's surface as MIP approached it. The radar altimeter was included to measure the rate of descent of the probe to the lunar surface. Such instruments are necessary for future lunar soft landing missions. And, the mass spectrometer was for studying the extremely thin lunar atmosphere.

MIP's 25 minute journey to the lunar surface began with its separation from Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft at 20:06 hrs (8:06 pm) IST. This was followed by a series of automatic operations that began with the firing of its spin up rockets after achieving a safe distance of separation from Chandrayaan-1.

Later, the probe slowed down with the firing of its retro rocket and started its rapid descent towards the moon's surface. Information from the its instruments was radioed to Chandrayaan-1 by MIP.

The spacecraft recorded this in its onboard memory for later readout. Finally, the probe had a hard landing on the lunar surface that terminated its functioning.

Thus, India's very first attempt to send a probe to the moon's surface from its spacecraft orbiting the moon has been successfully concluded.

With the switching ON of two of Chandrayaan-1's payloads - Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM) - on its journey to moon and with MIP's successful impact on the lunar surface today, it is planned to switch ON and test the remaining eight payloads of the spacecraft in the coming few days.

It may be recalled that Chandrayaan-1 was successfully launched by PSLV-C11 on October 22, 2008 from India's spaceport at Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota into its intended initial elliptical orbit around the Earth.

Following this, the spacecraft's orbit was raised in steps and it was made to pass near the moon by repeatedly firing its 440 Newton liquid engine. After Chandrayaan-1's entry into its planned lunar orbit on November 8, 2008, the orbital height was reduced in steps to its intended operational altitude of 100 km from the lunar surface.

Since its launch, the health and orbit of Chandrayaan-1 is being continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre of ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore with critical support from antennas of Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu.

IDSN antennas have also received the images and scientific information gathered by TMC, RADOM, and more recently, by MIP.

Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
ISRO
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


US space-funeral company plans to launch lunar cemetery
Miami (AFP) Nov 14, 2008
A US funeral business that specializes in launching cremated human remains into Earth's orbit has begun taking reservations for landing small capsules of ashes on the moon, announced the company's founder.







  • Space Researchers Developing Tool To Help Disoriented Pilots
  • Kazakh Astronaut To Fly To ISS, Russian Hopeful Grounded
  • Volan Escape System To Rescue Space Crews
  • CU-Boulder To Launch Butterfly, Spider K-12 Experiments

  • Mars Rover Team Sets Low-Power Plan For Spirit
  • Planetary Society Steps Beyond Moon For Roadmap To Space
  • India to take second moon shot by 2012, eyes Mars
  • Controllers Cheer As Data Arrive from NASA's Spirit Rover



  • Seeing A Distant Planet
  • Hubble Snaps Exoplanet Orbiting Nearby Star
  • Dusty Shock Waves Generate Planet Ingredients
  • MIT Researchers Find Clues To Planets' Birth

  • MU Scientists Go Green With Gold, Environmentally Friendly Nanoparticles
  • Scientists Create Balloon One Atom Thick
  • Rosnanotech Aims For 157 Billion Dollars In Output By 2015
  • New Nano-Positioners May Have Atomic-Scale Precision

  • USRA Division Of Space Life Sciences Celebrates 25th Anniversary
  • A card swipe machine may test for diseases
  • Officials: Cadavers used in NASA project
  • Researcher Seeks To Protect Muscles Of Astronauts

  • Sea Launch Prepares For Launch Of SICRAL 1B
  • Ariane 5 Is Readied For Arianespace's Initial Mission Of 2009
  • ILS Proton Successfully Launches ASTRA 1M Satellite
  • Russia Set To Launch SES Telecoms Satellite

  • NASA's New Ares Rocket Engine Passes Review
  • NASA to test Orion launch abort system
  • First Rocket Parts Of NASA's New Launch System Arrive In Florida
  • Copenhagen Suborbitals Tests Hybrid Rocket

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement