Indian moon mission launched successfully

Chandrayaan –I: India'S moon mission launched successfully


As a precursor to the festival of lights, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) staged its very own rocket show today with the launch of Chandrayaan-I satellite.
Chandrayaan-I, India's first unmanned moon mission satellite vehicle, successfully blasted off at around 6.20 a.m, on October 22, 2008, from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, some 80 kms from Chennai.



Chandrayaan-1, (roughly translated as "Moon Craft-1") will carry 11 payloads, including a terrain mapping and mineralogical camera from India and a European Space Agency instrument that will capture images of the moon and analyze its magnetic surface.






This is India's first unmanned moon mission and is scheduled to last for two years. The project is expected to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect its surface for natural resources, including uranium, a coveted fuel for nuclear power plants, according to the Indian Space Research Organization.






The spaceship is scheduled to go into orbit 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the moon on November. 8 or November. 9, mapping the lunar terrain and mineral composition. The craft will also release a probe to take close-range images during a 25-minute descent to the surface.




Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft begins its journey from earth onboard India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) and will reach a highly elliptical Initial Orbit (IO). In the Initial Orbit, the perigee (nearest point to earth) is about 250 km and apogee (farthest point from the earth) is about 23,000 km.

After circling the Earth in its Initial Orbit for a while, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft is taken into two more elliptical orbits whose apogees lie still higher at 37,000 km and 73,000 km respectively. This is done at opportune moments by firing the spacecraft's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) when the spacecraft is near perigee.

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