Let's fly to the Moon and back..

By 2007, if ISRO's Chandrayaan mission is successful

BY SAMIDHA SATAPATHY
March 20, 2006

Speculation over months was finally put to rest on August 15, 2003, when (the then) PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced to the nation that India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft would be launched. An excited Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) released a statement saying, "This mission will provide a unique opportunity for frontier scientific research. It is expected to be the forerunner of more ambitious planetary missions in the years to come, including landing robots on the moon and visits by Indian spacecraft to other planets in the solar system."

Chandrayaan-1, (Mooncraft in Sanskrit), is set to be launched in 2007 or latest by 2008. The launch of the 523 kg Chandrayaan spacecraft will mark several milestones for India, including making it the eight country to launch a satellite into orbit. Other countries who precede it include the Soviet Union (1957), US (1958), France (1965), Japan (1970), China (1970), UK (1971), and the European Space Agency (1979), and before Israel (1988) and Iraq (1989). Post-Chandrayaan, ISRO will be looking to send manned spacecraft within seven years.

The estimated cost for the project is Rs.3.8 billion. The mission objectives of Chandrayaan, which will be orbiting the moon at a distance of 100 kilometres, include carrying out high resolution mapping of topographic features in 3D. The atlas will be created with the help of high-resolution remote sensing in the visible, near infrared, low and high-energy X-ray regions.

One area of interest during the Chandrayaan mission will be polar caps, which are believed to contain ice. Another area under close scrutiny will be the lunar South Poles Aitken basin - an ancient crater impact area. The Chandrayaan mission will also aim to harness the science payloads, lunar craft and the launch vehicle with suitable ground support system. Chandrayaan will also try to work out a more accurate model of the moon's gravity.

In February, Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, clarified that Chandrayaan was on course towards its 2007-08 launch, and that the preliminary design reviews and payload systems had been completed. He also said that along with the main Indian instruments, six foriegn instruments would be included. Four of these are from Europe, and two from the United States.

With US President Bush's visit to India, Chandrayaan found itself crossing yet another hurdle, as the President pledged American support for the craft. In addition, NASA and ISRO would be signing an understanding that would go on to facilitate scientific progress for both countries.

The two US payloads that will fly on Chandrayaan are the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (to map the polar landscape and deposits of water ice in these cold traps up to a depth of a few metres and) a Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) to assess the mineral resources of the Moon and to characterise and map the composition of the surface at high spatial resolution.