Chandrayan I: India’s First Lunar Probe

Chandrayan-1 (meaning “moon craft”) was the first lunar probelaunchedbyIndia as part of the Chandrayaan program. The Indian Space Research Organisation launched it in October 2008, and it lasted till August 2009. A lunar orbiter and an impactor were part of the mission. On October 22, 2008, at 00:52 UTC, India launched the spacecraft from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, using a PSLV-XL rocket. India’s space programme received a big boost as a result of the mission, as India researched and created its own technology in order to explore the Moon. On November 8, 2008, the vehicle was placed into lunar orbit. The project was anticipated to cost 386 crores. 

Over a two-year period, it was planned to survey the lunar surface in order to develop a full map showing the chemical composition present at the surface as well as three-dimensional topography. Water ice may be found in the polar areas, which is why they are of particular significance. The discovery of the widespread existence of water molecules in lunar soil was one of its numerous accomplishments. 

The orbiter began to suffer from various technical faults after almost a year, including the loss of the star tracker and weak thermal insulation; Chandrayaan-1 ceased to communicate at around 20:00 UTC on August 28, 2009, and the ISRO formally declared the mission over. Chandrayaan-1 only lasted 312 days instead of the two years it was supposed to, although it accomplished almost all of its scientific goals.

More than seven years after it was shut down, NASA utilised ground-based radar systems for repositioning Chandrayaan-1 in lunar orbit on July 2, 2016. Frequent observations over the next three months permitted an accurate determination of its orbit, which fluctuates in height every two years between 150 and 270 km (93 and 168 mi).

In his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2003, then-Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee confirmed that the Chandrayaan 1 project was on track. India’s space programme received a big boost as a result of the mission. In 1999, during a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the notion of an Indian research expedition to the Moon was initially proposed. In the year 2000, the proposal was taken up by the Astronautical Society of India (ASI). Shortly after, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) established the National Lunar Mission Task Force, which found that ISRO possesses the technical expertise required to carry out an Indian lunar mission.

The Task Force’s recommendation to launch an Indian probe to the moon was discussed and approved in April 2003 by over more than hundreds of eminent Indian scientists from the domain of planetary and space sciences, Earth Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Engineering and Communication Sciences. The Indian government approved the expedition six months later, in the month of November. 

Following are some of the objectives of Chandrayan 1:

1. For using an Indian-made launch vehicle, design, develop, launch, and orbit a spacecraft around the Moon.
2. for conducting scientific experiments on the spacecraft utilising devices that would produce data:
3.  for the creation of a three-dimensional atlas of the Moon’s near and far sides
4. for high-resolution chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface, with a focus on the chemical elements magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, iron, titanium, radon, uranium, and thorium
5. For the purpose of increasing scientific knowledge.
6. As a forerunner for future soft-landing missions, to test the impact of a sub-satellite on the Moon’s surface. 

Important Discovery Made by Chandrayan 1

Evidence Of Water

The data from Chandrayaan-1 was particularly important in determining the existence of water ice on the moon, which NASA reported in September 2009. When investigating the upper portion of the moon’s regolith, the agency’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper identified evidence of a hydrogen-oxygen chemical link (hinting at water or hydroxyl) (soil). At the poles, the water signal looked to be greater. Following NASA’s statement, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced that its Moon Impact Probe had found the signature of water on the moon soon before impacting the surface.

Conclusion

The mission began operations on October 22, 2008, and is anticipated to last two years. However, on August 28, 2009, around 20:00 UTC, connection with the spacecraft was lost. The probe had been up and running for 312 days. The craft was supposed to stay in orbit for another 1000 days before crashing into the lunar surface in late 2012; however, it was discovered still in orbit in 2016. Despite the fact that the mission lasted less than ten months and was less than half the projected two years, scientists deemed it a success because it met 95 per cent of its key objectives.