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Chandrayaan-1 launched | Sends signals across world
Published on Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 06:31, Updated on Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 00:22 in Sci-Tech section
Tags: Chandrayaan, Chandrayaan-1
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Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh: India’s first unmanned flight to the moon blasted off from Sriharikota, off the Andhra Pradesh coast, early morning on Wednesday.
A 44-metre-tall and 316-tonne rocket called the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C11) carried the 1,380-kg lunar orbiter Chandrayaan 1 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at exactly 0622 hrs IST.
IANS reports the PSLV started to move into its designated orbit within minutes, to sling Chandrayaan into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), as scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) cheered on.
From the GTO the satellite's onboard liquid apogee motor (LAM) will be fired to take it to the lunar orbit—387,000 km from earth—around November 8.
Once the 1,380-kg Chandrayaan gets near the moon its speed will be reduced to enable the gravity of the moon to capture it into an elliptical orbit.
At the earliest possible opportunity Chandrayaan will drop its Moon Impact Probe (MIP) which will land on the moon's soil carrying India's flag, among many scientific instruments. After that, the spacecraft will also activate its cameras and other instruments on board.
ISRO scientists said the launch was perfect and there was zero error during the four of its phases. Speaking minutes after the successful liftoff ISRO Chairperson G Madhavan Nair described the moment as "historic".
"India has started its journey to the moon. The first leg has gone perfectly. The spacecraft has been launched into orbit," he said.
Mission statement
Chandrayaan will orbit the moon for two years. A principal objective of Chandrayaan is to look for Helium 3, an isotope which is very rare on earth but is sought to power nuclear fusion and could be a valuable source of energy in the future, some scientists believe. It is thought to be more plentiful on the moon, but still rare and very difficult to extract.
The Rs 386-crore mission is also expected to carry out a detailed survey of the moon to look for precious metals and water. "We are going to get a three-dimensional atlas of the moon's surface, which will be used for chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface," Bhaskar Narayan, an ISRO director told Reuters.
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URBANEYE
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It is a pity that no one remembered that Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave the go ahead for this mission .
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The dream of many scientists who had worked for this project directly or indirectly has been accomplished. I join to
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Congratulations to all those involved in this exercise in ISRO. They have made the country proud. Warm wishes to every
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PROUD MOMENT FOR THE NATION TO BE IN LEAGUE OF ADVANCED NATIONS.
HOPE SUCH SCIENTIFIC ACHIVEMENT WILL BRING SMILE
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Truly a well deserved success.. Kudos to our indigenous scientists.. this is our stride towards our 2020 dream vision
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