Essays

The Moon is the only celestial body on which human beings have orbited and landed. The first man-made object to escape Earth's gravity and pass near the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 1, the first man- made object to impact the lunar surface was Luna 2, and the first photographs of the normally occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3, all in 1959. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9 and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966. The United States' Apollo program achieved the first (and only) manned missions to the Moon, culminating in 6 landings between 1969 and 1972. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, on October 22, 2009.

Chandrayaan-1, India's maiden moon mission has found water on moon on September 24, 2009, ending a four-decade long predication on whether there is water on moon. Scientists had first claimed that water existed on moon about 40 years ago after they analysed rock sample brought to earth by Apollo astronauts. But they had doubts about the finding because the boxes in which the moon rocks were brought to earth had leaked contaminating the samples with air from atmosphere.

Chandrayaan-1 was carrying five Indian instruments and six from abroad, including M3 and another from NASA, three from the European Space Agency (ESA), and one from Bulgaria. NASA's instrument Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) aboard Chandrayaan-1 helped to find the existence of water molecules on the lunar surface, a notable finding that could exhilarate space scientist to look for possibility of life in the lunar environment. Confirming the discovery of Chandrayaan-1, NASA thanked ISRO for making the discovery possible.

M3's spectrometer from its perch in lunar orbit measured light reflecting off the Moon's surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colours of the lunar surface into small enough bits to reveal a level of detail in surface composition. The M3 science team analysed data from the instrument it found the wavelengths of light being absorbed Were consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and Hydroxyl.. The M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse Areas of the sunlit region of the Moon's surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the Moon's higher latitudes.s

Chandrayaan, which means "Moon Craft" in Sanskrit, was launched  On  October 22, 2008 at 6.22 a.m. 1ST from Satish Dhawan Space Centre  Using  Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which weighed 1304 kg  At  launch and 590 kg at lunar orbit. It took 21 days to reach final lunar Orbit.. It was India's first unmanned mission to moon. Its proposal by ISRO was approved by Government of India in November 2003.

The first Earth picture was taken by Chandrayaan-1's Terrain mapping Camera (TMC) on October 29, 2008. On November 14, 2008 Indian triacolour was placed on moon's surface coinciding with the birthday of India's first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Indian triaclour was painted on Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the payloads built by India.

When ISRO on 25 November, 2008 reported that Chandrayaan-1’s Temperature had risen above normal to 50°C, Scientists said that it was caused by higher than normal temperatures in lunar orbit. The temperature was brought down by about 10°C by rotating the spacecraft about 20 degrees and by switching off some of the instruments.  Subsequently, on May 19, 2009, Chandrayaan-1's orbit had to by change to 200km from its previous 100km due to malfunctions. Finally, when ISRO lost radio contact with Chandrayaan-1 and after failing to establish contact for more than 24 hours, the mission was terminated on august 30, 2009.

Overall, during its ten months of existence, Chandrayaan-1 completed 312 days in orbit and provided large amount of data. When the two years mission abruptly ended, chandrayaan-1 had completed more than3400 revolutions around the moon and had dispatched over 70,000 images of the moon's surface.  It is said that Cliaiidrayaan-1 Achieved 95 per cent of its objectives.

Though the mission ended abruptly, no scientific data is lost as all the data was downloaded from the spacecraft on a regular basis. After the termination, I reason provided s that a miscalculation of the MOON, s temperature had led to faulty protection. DR TK Alex, director, ISROS atellite Centre, Bangalore, said, "We assumed that the   temperature at 100km above the Moon's surface would be around 75 degrees Celsius. However, it was more than 75 degrees and problems started to surface." The average day temperature on the Moon’s surface   is 107 degrees Celsius, while the mid night temperature is -153 degree celsius. Thus, heat strokes might have killed Chandrayaan I.

In spite of its premature death, Chandrayaan-1's high-resolutions   Cameras have sent over 70,000 digital images of the lunar surface   including pictures of mountains, craters, and the permanently shadowed Area of Moon's polar region. It may take years to analyse the abundance   of that obtained. Some of the experiments which could not be carried   out were due to the heating problem on the craft which had begun as early as November 25, 2008, forcing ISRO to deactivate some of the Payloads.

In early 2009, the situation improved and Chandrayaan-1 started Operating normally. However, this time two star sensors got problem because of high temperature. These sensors were crucial in determining the orientation of the craft in space. The first star sensor packed up on April 26, and even the back-up sensor failed during the second week of May.

Moon/Space mission failures are not unusual for countries and organizations. Chandrayaan-1 will act as a great motivator for planning of Chandrayaan-2. India has joined the United States, the former sovier Union and the European Space Agency comprising 17 countries that already have their flags on the moon. ISRO) is planning second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 in 2030. Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) is joining with ISRO for Development of Chandrayaan-2 Lander/Rover. Chandrayaan-2 will consist of the spacecraft and a landing platform with the moon rover. The rover would move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do a chemical analysis and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above. The rover will weigh between 30 kg and 100 kg. Depending on whether it is to do a semi-hard landing or soft landing the rover will have an operating life-span of a month. It will run predominantly on solar power.