Introduction. Every powerful nation's first motive was to visit the moon. Even since Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon on July 20, 1969 it has been a back-to-the-Moon journey. In this very age of globalization each and very powerful country is realizing that the moon is within reach. Forget the US and the previous USSR, China, India, Japan and the European Space Agency (ESA), which comprises 17 nations, are now in the race. India's first unmanned spacecraft mission to moon. India's first unmanned spacecraft mission, Chandrayaan-I, was launched on October
22 from Sriharikota spacecraft. This spacecraft travelled in space for some days. This spacecraft is the smallest and the cheapest among all the spacecrafts sent to the moon.
Successful Mission. An entirely indigenously manufactured device, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) with the tricolor painted on it about the size of a large television set was released from the Chandrayaan-I spacecraft. This device touched down successfully on the moon's surface at 8.31 pm, 14th November, 2008 making a giant leap forward for Indian space research. The MIP was released at 8.06 p.m. while Chandrayaan-I was orbiting over the Malarpet mountain on the moon. It landed on the moon's Shakleton Crater, 25 minutes later.
Details of MIP. The MIP contains a spectrometer to analyse the lunar atmosphere, an altimeter to measure heights and a video camera. At the time of its decent, the MIP has taken visuals of the moon, from its equator to its south pole, which was never taken before.
Primary objective of MIP. The MIP's, developed by ISRO's Vita-am Sarabhai Space Centre of Thiruvananthapuram, primary objective is to demonstrate the technologies required for landing a probe at the desired location on the moon. MIP will also help qualify some of the technologies related to future soft landing missions. Apart from this, scientific exploration of the moon at close distance is also intended using MIP. Future. This successful mission of Chandrayaan-I will help ISRO to put an Indian astronaut into space in an Indian spacecraft and also unmanned mission to Mars, in future.
