India's Chandrayaan-1 On Its Way to the Moon
Written by Nancy Atkinson
Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the Moon, was successfully launched earlier this morning from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) in Sriharikota, India. The PSLV-C11 rocket lifted off at 02:52 Central European Summer Time (CEST). About 20 minutes later the spacecraft was , injected into a highly elongated orbit around the Earth. The spacecraft will reach the moon in about two weeks. It will take several days for the Chandrayaan-1 to reach its lunar transfer orbit, and then it will take about 5 days to reach the moon. Once the spacecraft is orbiting the moon, it will progressively lower its altitude through propulsive maneuvers to reach its final 100 km-high circular orbit.
Chandrayaan-1 mission profile. Credit: ESA
Chandrayaan-1 is a truly international mission, with payloads from Europe as well as the United States. NASA's contribution includes the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, designed to look for lunar mineral resources, and an instrument known as Mini-SAR, which will look for ice deposits in the moon's polar regions. Engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are also providing backup navigation assistance to the Indian Space Agency in Bangalore, India.
At the earliest opportunity, the spacecraft will eject the ‘Moon Impact Probe’ to provide information about the lunar surface. The mission will then continue from orbit, with remote-sensing studies carried out by its 11 scientific instruments. Three of these instruments were provided by Europe (UK, Germany, Sweden) through ESA.
Sources: ESA,
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October 22nd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Excellent! Best of luck to ISRO!
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Why are we letting the Indians orbit our moon? America was there first.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
(shrug) You can't very well enforce a claim if you aren't willing and/or able to stay there, can you?
Remember, the Scandinavians were the first Euuropeans to reach the New World, but it was the Spanish, English, French, Dutch and Portugese who made it stick. Or as this man put it:
"It's nice to be first. The money is in being second."
- Larry Bell, aerospace engineer
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
"# George_McCain Says:
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
"Why are we letting the Indians orbit our moon? America was there first."
Too bad your woefully inept government hasn't bothered to see the point in going back for the last 35 years. With vision like that, it'll probably be India you'll have to go to for permission to orbit their new planet in 20 years – Mars.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
@George_McCain ..
Common George_McCain .. its not property of america..
Common india…..
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:47 pm
This is great – well done INDIA. With the Chinese now in space and planning a space station. It might shock the Americans out of their slumber. And get them a bit more motivated to recapture the GLORY DAYS OF APOLLO.
Maybe we are on the verge of the next space race.
Here's hoping !!!!!!!
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Congrats India !! I love the fact that missions are beginning to be more international.
I heard India is planning a human space mission by 2015 and a Human Moon Mission by 2020 (funding pending though).
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Nothing much of value on the Moon, let's just pass it by and send a couple of really big tankers to Titan, pump a couple of those lakes dry. When they get back we can loan OPEC a little of it.
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Great, another country launches a satellite that will take pictures of the base on the moon and keep it to themselves.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Congrats to ISRO. It's nice to have a space race among various countries. But, once we go out to the space, it is not the USA or India. It is humanity. We are all on the same side.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Awesome achievement by India.. A manned Indian mission would make me the proudest person alive
…
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Timber there is loads of H3 on the Earth's moon, which is the main push for most countries attempting to set up shop there.
H3 will surely be quite valuable in the years to come.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:58 pm
@George_McCain
At least now we can make those bloody conspiracy theorists shut their mouths, all together, after we get high resolution images of moon showing the evidence that Apollo missions are genuine. So, in a way, ISRO is helping NASA .. so just chill
"Americans vs Russia" 's ship has sailed brother… It's India vs China now
…. just kidding 
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:10 am
Hey McCain..! Remember.. America itself was nothing before Great Britain found it in 1776. Go & get the permission from britishers first before speaking anything. And india was well developed at 2600 BC. Centuries before America born. We shown you the moon (Chandra). Indian Astronomy, Vedanga, was the earliest in the world. First get the knowledge and then speakout in public.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:12 am
@Aodhhan; I presume you meant to say He-3.
(Unless Hummer as setup shop there off course)
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:22 am
Congratulation to India space program and Chandrayaan sucess!
Well done!
Now, wi have another "rabbit" for "space race – the next generation"
Marino
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:32 am
Well and awaiting more from the Indian side. All Indians are proud of it. Hope this America and Russia to rejoin in space. India will be there as a mediator to avoid the distance between them, to do good for the man kind. Like what India did in Chandrayan-1. India will take Russian payload also american payload. In future India's roll will be like that. It will lead to clear the dark clouds between them.
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:03 am
Wow.. party ppl. india did a great job!
And now we can shut all those proudies . Thers nothing that India can't do.! And i agree with you nikhlesh shah. India was well developed before America came into existence.
The main point is- whu the heck are those bloddy ppl jealous of India's development! And Moon is not america's PROPERTY!
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:05 am
Great job by ISRO. Looking forward to a successful mission.
BTW, how "technically" different is this launch from the several other launches that the PSLV has accomplished?
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:50 am
@raghu
The traditional payload of PSLV is smaller than what they planned for this mission. So reconfigured the body to carry 4 tonne more fuel than earlier versions. Also the strap-on motors are bigger than previous ones.
More details here http://tinyurl.com/6moqla
October 23rd, 2008 at 5:00 am
Wolter…
Thank you for correcting me. I meant He/helium 3.
October 23rd, 2008 at 6:34 am
India and China send up a few rockets and all of a sudden America is "losing" the space race?
What a bunch of liberal fools. It just goes to show that if you tell a lie often enough, some people will start to believe it.
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:54 am
Congrats to the fledgling Indian space program. India is now entering the world stage in the exploration of space, the more the merrier! I hope that missions such as Chandrayaan-1 encourages other nations to cooperate in the peaceful exploration of space instead of the militarization of space. We should all look forward to increased interest in space exploration by other nations interested in peaceful applications of science & technology. I look forward to the mapping info to be accumulated by Chandrayaan-1, LRO & other European, Chinese, Russian, and Japanese lunar missions. The future of lunar exploration looks bright indeed.
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:36 am
I suspect NASA will be outsourcing its lunar colonies to India in a few decades.
And we better learn to speak Chinese while up there, too.
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:51 am
george mcain ki maa ki chud apni auukaad main rahhaa kar bhosdi ke
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:31 am
Congratulations India! Let's all realize our reaches into space are at one level a matter of national pride, but at the highest level its the species that is learning how to navigate its way off of the planet in the search of our next home – needed for sure within the next 1.1 billion years or so. As we learn to cooperate as a species, we will go much farther with our technologies.
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Some of the comments here horrify me…
I'm just thinking:
maybe, if the Indian Space Agency had left out NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper and mini-SAR, there would have been no need for expensive and time-consuming modifications to the launch vehicle???
—————————–
Perhaps India will set up a really good medical treatment service on the moon, better than anything we Europeans and you US-Americans can even dream of….
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Hey Cain just to remind you:
Ancient Egyptians and Indians found out the early planents
Pyolemy(Greek) gave the first (geocentric)theory about solar system even thogh wrong
Copernicus (Polish) gave the correct theory about solar system
Kepler (German) gave the laws of planetary motion which is being used by every space agency
Newton (British) gave the laws of gravitation which corroborated Kepler's laws. The Newtonian machanics forms the basis of all machines including rockets that take you to the moon
Where were you Americans at those times??
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:35 pm
@Feenixx
"Perhaps India will set up a really good medical treatment service on the moon, better than anything we Europeans and you US-Americans can even dream of…."
LOL
ISRO need commercialization of launches for it to support itself instead of relying on parliament for the more funds. So other space agency's payloads are always welcome
October 23rd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
*correction*
for more funds
and moreover I guess such commercialization would help small countries to launch their own satellites.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I dont know why the Americans are so proudy and jealous. what ever leave it.
i jusy want tell you that, in timing from lunching to reaching at destination, launch vehicle is very promt than ever vehicle in the world. There is no challenge to PSLV launcher in the world abt its timing.
Now just wait upto 2015 when india will have manned mission.
October 24th, 2008 at 4:06 am
Simply brtilliant!!!..India the cradle of human civilization and knowledge..There's more to come…This is just the beginning. This could be India's and America's century….Cheers.
October 24th, 2008 at 7:56 am
I for one am delighted every time the challenge of space exploration gets picked up by another country. We may have different cultures, speak different languages, different skin complexions – but the reality that we're on this tiny rock together is undeniable. The answers we need to grow & survive are out there and well hidden – so the more of us who search the better.
God speed Chandrayaan-1!
October 25th, 2008 at 12:28 am
Guys, Its is not about which country reached moon first or which country holds authority…time is near guys to speak for whole world… speak for humans throughout the world, let this moon mission from India help all the human beings to survive in this world for years to come. Afterall we (the people in the earth) are not even a small spot in this galaxy and let we (this tiny spot) help each other to survive in this galaxy for ever.
October 25th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
George, I think u should be more worried for the US's economy rather to claim the moon. I read somewhere that US landed on the moon decades ago…but Indians did not find you there….
October 26th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
These Indians laugh because they know they are stealing American jobs – and next will be the Universe.
A Universe full of Calcuttas. Imagine that.
October 27th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Hindustan Times says NASA employees are sending their resumes to ISRO.
The exodus has begun.
Thanks a lot, India.
Looking so forward to my new Soylent Green lifestyle.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Why are people talking about a space race?? the Indians are sending a lunar probe that will share data with NASA and the ESA. when was the last time anyone went to space spending billions of dollars and gave out the data for free?? I am Indian and i grew up in India. I was taught that Neil Armstrong was the first human to reach the moon, and he is my idol and a hero for many. I dont care if he is american, african or indian. we are talking about planets, solar systems galaxies and humanity and these things are much bigger than people, races, ego's and their nations.
if anything you should be worried about china shooting down satellites… not about india going to the moon to make a topographical map and to find other minerals.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:27 am
DEAR SIR
PROPHET MOHAMMED PEACE BE UPON HIM DIVIDED MOON IN TWO PARTS ACCORDING TO ISALAMIC HADITH
October 31st, 2008 at 12:29 am
MAY BE WE FIND AUTHENTICITY OF THIS HISTORY
October 31st, 2008 at 12:35 am
THERE IS ANOTHER QUESTION UNANSWERED IS LIFE THERE IN SPACE
ACCORDING TO HADITH BYMOHAMMED "PEACE BE UPON HIM"
YES THERE IS LIFE BUT THESE HABITAINS ARE SO FAR FROM US THAT THEY CANNOT CONTACT US NEITHER WE CAN CONTACT THEM.
I THINK ALLAH HAS KEPT THEM AWAY BECAUSE HE DOES NOT NEED UNIVERSAL WAR.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:39 am
WE HAVE UNCOVERED THE DARKNESS BY INVENTING LIGHT BUT WE ARE STILL TO OVERCOME FLOOD AND FIRE DISASTER THINK OVER IT MAY GOD GIVES US POWER TO OVER COME IT.
October 31st, 2008 at 4:38 am
It's a giant leap for ISRO and people of India as a whole. Chandrayaan-1 has opened our minds to the vastness of cosmos.ISRO, the NASA of India, will definitely help us to get out of all widespread ignorance and Pseudoscience. I feel, launching of Chandrayaan-1 and its importance should be highlighted in a greater way. It should not be a neglected news of the fifth page of a newspaper.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:37 am
AHH! Now BigBang >>the existence of homo sapiens>> and the moon missions, rest all is bullshit, let it be any thing which happened in history.
We were born to survive as a planet. we are going their. Hey Aliens we the PEOPLE OF EARTH are coming to wish you! Damn I love this. Lets all of our civilizations go to the outer space.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:38 am
@ McCain:
Chuck it, let it go. Moon is our property, by our I mean, Earth's property and not just America.
November 12th, 2008 at 5:06 am
In last couple of years, India has grown as an economic superpower which can now spends millions and billions in science. Chandrayaan-1 truly reflects that India has always been capable of doing such things, its just matter of time before it could divert its resources to science like what US, Europe and China has been doing since a long time.
November 12th, 2008 at 10:59 am
India and indians for centuries have been adopting the policy of peaceful co existence. It is with this policy tat india allowed US and ESA instruments to be part of CHANDRAYAAN-1. Salutes to the great nation wer great people like buddha, gandhi, subhas chandra bose, abdul kalam and Vajpayee were born.