|
|
India's moon mission has achieved its final success as the unmanned lunar spacecraft; Chandrayaan-1 has been successfully placed in the lunar orbit at about 100 km from moon's surface. According to the Director of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), S. Satish, the space craft will execute its exploration task for two years. Chandrayaan will rotate around the moon once in two hours, he added. The spacecraft was maneuvered into lunar orbit at 6.30 pm on November 12, 2008.
The orbit-reduction was executed from the spacecraft control centre at ISRO’s telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) in Bangalore. During its two-year stay at lunar orbit, Chandrayaan will conduct slew of activities including chemical, mineralogical and photo geological mapping of the moon. The 11 scientific instruments which the spacecraft carried from earth will be used in the exploration tasks.
According to Satish, some instruments like terrain mapping camera (TMC) and radiation dose monitor (Radom) have been switched on. The spacecraft has sent some pictures of earth and moon taken by TMC. He also informed that the moon impact probe (MIP) will be released from Chandrayaan on November 13. MIP with Indian tri-colour painted on it will land at a designated spot on the lunar surface. The ISRO director further informed that Chandrayaan is functioning perfectly.
