India’s Maiden Moon Mission – Chandrayaan-I
I salute the Indian space scientists. Indian scientists at ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) lead by chairman G. Madhavan Nair, created history today (Wednesday, 22nd October 2008, 06:22 AM Indian Standard Time) as rocket launch vehicle PSLV-C11 successfully took-off from the greener grounds of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, 80 KM away towards north from Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The 316Ton launcher is carrying a minibus sized satellite weighing 1,380 Kgs. It took 18.2 Minutes for the first stage of the mission and the mission is being tracked from Bangalore. It will take 15 days for the Lunar Orbiter to reach the distance of 387,000 KM down to moon’s orbit. The obiter will be placed in 100KM lunar orbit.
The last major and successful mission undertaken by ISRO scientists was launching of satellite ‘Kalpana-1’ (in memory of astronaut Kalpana Chawla) on 30,000 KM geostationary orbit.
Interestingly last year Japan and China had two successful launching of satellites to lunar orbit. Japan in their mission titled “Kaguya” has spend 480 Million USD and in September 2007 while China in their mission titled “Chang’E 1” had spent 187 Million USD in October 2007. Comparatively India’s mission is considered cheap as it costs mere 79 Million USD. India spends 0.2 to 0.3% of in national budget for space exploration whereas other nations spend upto 3% of their national budget.
I salute the Indian space scientists. Indian scientists at ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) lead by chairman G. Madhavan Nair, created history today (Wednesday, 22nd October 2008, 06:22 AM Indian Standard Time) as rocket launch vehicle PSLV-C11 successfully took-off from the greener grounds of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, 80 KM away towards north from Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The 316Ton launcher is carrying a minibus sized satellite weighing 1,380 Kgs. It took 18.2 Minutes for the first stage of the mission and the mission is being tracked from Bangalore. It will take 15 days for the Lunar Orbiter to reach the distance of 387,000 KM down to moon’s orbit. The obiter will be placed in 100KM lunar orbit.
The last major and successful mission undertaken by ISRO scientists was launching of satellite ‘Kalpana-1’ (in memory of astronaut Kalpana Chawla) on 30,000 KM geostationary orbit.
Interestingly last year Japan and China had two successful launching of satellites to lunar orbit. Japan in their mission titled “Kaguya” has spend 480 Million USD and in September 2007 while China in their mission titled “Chang’E 1” had spent 187 Million USD in October 2007. Comparatively India’s mission is considered cheap as it costs mere 79 Million USD. India spends 0.2 to 0.3% of in national budget for space exploration whereas other nations spend upto 3% of their national budget.
India joins the elite club of ‘Moon Missionaries’ USA, Russia, European Space Agency, Japan and China. A 25 kilograms weighing Moon Impactor Probe carrying an Indian Flag will land on the moon during the mission.
Chandra means Moon and Yaan stands for journey or rover. Besides the plan to plant an Indian flag on the lunar surface and the intended mapping of entire moon, India’s keenness in tapping Helium-3 which is abundantly available on the moon has sparked interest amongst other nations too. As per the ISRO chairman Mr. Madhavan G. Nair, even 1 Ton of Helium-3 can sustain the entire nations energy requirement for 1 year.
ISRO intends to have its second unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-II in the year 2012 and a manned moon mission could be possible by the year 2015.
Few Facts :
Mission Name : Chandrayaan I
Mission Duration : 2 Years
Launch Pad : Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SriharikotaLaunch
ISRO intends to have its second unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-II in the year 2012 and a manned moon mission could be possible by the year 2015.
Few Facts :
Mission Name : Chandrayaan I
Mission Duration : 2 Years
Launch Pad : Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SriharikotaLaunch
Date & Time : 22 October 2008 at 6:22 AM
Launch Vehicle : PSLV-C11
Launch Duration : 15 Days
Weight of Launch Vehicle : 316Tons
Height of Launch Vehicle : 44.4 Meters
Weight of Lunar Orbiter : 1,380 Kilograms
No. of payloads carried : 11
Distance from earth : 387,000 Kilometers
No. of scientists behind : 1000
Project Cost : 79 Million USD (386 Crores IRS)
Launch Vehicle : PSLV-C11
Launch Duration : 15 Days
Weight of Launch Vehicle : 316Tons
Height of Launch Vehicle : 44.4 Meters
Weight of Lunar Orbiter : 1,380 Kilograms
No. of payloads carried : 11
Distance from earth : 387,000 Kilometers
No. of scientists behind : 1000
Project Cost : 79 Million USD (386 Crores IRS)
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