Chandrayaan 1

 

Chandrayaan: India’s Quest for the Moon

India has always been fascinated by the Moon, the celestial body that lights up the night sky and influences the tides, festivals, and calendars. 

India’s interest in the Moon goes beyond mythology and spirituality. India also has a scientific curiosity and ambition to explore the Moon and its mysteries. That is why India launched the Chandrayaan programme, a series of lunar missions that aim to study the Moon’s surface, composition, and history.

The Chandrayaan programme (Chandrayaan is Hindi for “moon craft”) is an ongoing series of outer space missions by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for the exploration of the Moon. The programme incorporates a lunar orbiter, an impactor, a soft lander and a rover spacecraft.

In this blog, you shall get to know about the Chandrayaan 1 mission conducted by ISRO in 2008.

The first mission, Chandrayaan-1, was launched in 2008 and operated for about a year. It was the first Indian mission to reach the lunar orbit and made several important discoveries, such as the presence of water molecules on the Moon. It also mapped the Moon in infrared, visible, and X-ray light from lunar orbit and used reflected radiation to prospect for various elements, minerals, and ice.

The second mission, Chandrayaan-2, was launched in 2019 and consisted of a lunar orbiter, a lander named Vikram, and a rover named Pragyan. The mission’s main objective was to demonstrate a soft landing on the lunar surface and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments. However, the lander lost contact with ISRO and crashed on the Moon3 during its final descent. The orbiter, however, continued to function and relayed high-resolution images and data from the lunar orbit.

The third mission, Chandrayaan-3, was launched in 2023 and made history by becoming the first to land in the lunar south pole region. With this, India joined an elite club of countries to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, after the US, the former Soviet Union and China. The mission consisted of a lander and a rover designed to operate for 14 Earth days (one lunar day) on the Moon. The mission’s primary scientific objective was to map and study the variations in lunar surface composition, as well as the location and abundance of lunar water.

Chandrayaan-1: India’s First Moon Mission

India has a long and rich history of lunar exploration, dating back to ancient times when the Moon was revered as a deity and a source of inspiration. But India’s modern journey to the Moon began in 2008, when it launched its first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, under the Chandrayaan programme.

Chandrayaan-1 (meaning “moon craft” in Hindi) was India’s first mission to the Moon and the first Indian mission to reach the lunar orbit. It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The mission cost about ₹386 crore (US$88.73 million) and was intended to last for two years.

The mission had two main components: an orbiter and a Moon Impact Probe (MIP). The orbiter carried 11 scientific instruments from India and other countries, such as NASA, ESA, and Bulgaria. The orbiter’s main objective was to survey the lunar surface over two years, to produce a complete map of the chemical composition at the surface and three-dimensional topography. The orbiter also aimed to study the lunar atmosphere, radiation environment, and mineralogy.

The MIP was a small device that was released from the orbiter on 14 November 2008 and crashed on the lunar surface near the south pole. The MIP’s main objective was to demonstrate India’s capability to land on the Moon and to collect data on the lunar atmosphere and soil. The MIP also carried an Indian flag and a picture of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who had suggested the idea of sending a probe to the Moon.

Chandrayaan-1 made several important discoveries and achievements during its mission. Some of them are:

• It detected water molecules on the lunar surface for the first time, using data from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument. This finding confirmed that water exists on the Moon in various forms, such as ice, vapour, and bound to minerals.
• It mapped the Moon in high resolution and in different wavelengths, using data from ISRO’s Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC), Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI), Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI), and High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX)^. These maps revealed new details about the lunar geology, morphology, and mineralogy.
• It discovered new craters, lava tubes, volcanic features, and magnetic anomalies on the Moon, using data from ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (CIXS), Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA), Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR), and Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM)^1. These discoveries enhanced our understanding of lunar evolution and history.
• It measured the temperature variations on the lunar surface and subsurface, using data from ISRO’s Moon Impact Probe (MIP) and NASA’s Mini-RF instrument. These measurements helped to estimate the thermal conductivity and heat flow of the lunar regolith.

Chandrayaan-1 also faced some challenges and difficulties during its mission. Some of them are:

• It suffered from several technical issues, such as failure of the star tracker, malfunctioning of some instruments, degradation of thermal insulation, and loss of communication with ISRO. These issues affected its performance and reduced its lifespan.
• It encountered higher-than-expected radiation levels in the lunar orbit, which damaged some of its components and increased its fuel consumption. This forced ISRO to raise its orbit from 100 km to 200 km above the lunar surface.
• It had limited coverage of the lunar far side and polar regions, due to its orbital inclination of 18 degrees. This restricted its ability to study some of the most interesting features of the Moon.

Chandrayaan-1 stopped communicating with ISRO on 28 August 2009, after completing about 3,400 orbits around the Moon. ISRO officially declared that the mission was over on 29 August 2009. The orbiter is still orbiting the Moon, but its exact location is unknown. In 2016, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) detected Chandrayaan-1 using ground-based radar techniques.

Chandrayaan-1 was a major milestone for India’s space programme and a proud moment for all Indians. It showcased India’s technological prowess and scientific potential in outer space. It also contributed to humanity’s knowledge and exploration of the Moon. Chandrayaan-1 paved the way for more ambitious lunar missions by India, such as Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3, which aim to land and rove on the Moon.

Chandrayaan-1 was not only a mission, but also a vision. A vision of India’s aspiration and inspiration to reach for the Moon and beyond.

 As ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said after Chandrayaan-1’s launch: “The Moon is ours now.”