Chandrayan-1 Indias impression on the Moon..

Courtesy:ISRO.

Today, India is one of the very few countries that have significant achievements to their credit in the arena of space. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has designed, developed and built a variety of satellites. And, it has successfully launched many of them into their intended orbits. More importantly, the country has used its satellites for the rapid expansion of its national infrastructure including telecommunications, TV broadcasting, weather monitoring, education, public health, agriculture and rural development. More recently, India has provided many space-based services including launch services to foreign customers on a competitive basis. With ample experience and many successes in Earth orbit, ISRO took up
Chandrayaan-1, its first bold step beyond Earth orbit into deep space.
The primary objectives of Chandrayaan-1 are:
1. To expand scientific knowledge about the moon.
2. To upgrade India's technological capability .
3. To provide challenging opportunities for planetary research to the younger generation of Indian scientists .

Chandrayaan-1 aims to achieve these well defined objectives through high resolution remote sensing of the moon in the visible, near infrared, microwave and X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. With this, preparation of a 3-dimensional atlas of the lunar surface and chemical mapping of entire lunar surface is envisaged.
Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft carried 11 payloads (scientific instruments) to achieve its objectives. The instruments were carefully chosen on the basis of many scientific and technical considerations as well as their complementary/supplementary nature.Of them, five instruments were entirely designed and developed in India, three instruments from European Space Agency (one of which was developed jointly with India and the other with Indian contribution), one from Bulgaria and two from the United States.
The payload consists of:-
1. Chandrayaan-1 Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS)
2. Smart Near Infrared Spectrometer (SIR-2)
3. Sub keV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA)
4. Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM)
5. Mini Syntheic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR)
6. Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3)
7.Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC)
8.Hyperspectral Imager (HySI)
9.Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI)
10.High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX)
11.Moon Impact Probe (MIP)

Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was built at ISROSatellite Centre, Bangalore with contributions from ISRO/Department of Space (DOS) establishments like Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) and ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU) of Tiruvananthapuram, Space Applications Centre (SAC) and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) of Ahmedabad and Laboratory for Electro-optic Systems (LEOS) of Bangalore.

On November 14, 2008, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP), carrying the painting of Indian tricolor on its sides, was separated from the spacecraft and after a 25 minute journey, impacted the lunar surface near the South polar region of the moon at around 20:31 Indian Standard Time (15:01 UT). Following this, the switching ON of the remaining nine payloads began. By mid December 2008, all the payloads had been switched on and tested.
PSLV-C11, chosen to launch Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, was an uprated version of ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle standard configuration. Weighing 320 tonnes at lift-off, the vehicle used
larger strap-on motors (PSOM-XL) to achieve higher payload capability.

The Ground Segment of Chandrayaan-1 performs the crucial task of receiving the radio signals sent by the spacecraft. It also transmits the radio commands to be sent to the spacecraft during different phases of its mission. Besides, it processes and safe keeps the scientific information sent by Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

The Ground Segment of Chandrayaan-1 consists of:
1. Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN)
2. Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC)
3. Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC)

Chandrayaan-1 is the first spacecraft mission of ISRO beyond Earth orbit. Chandrayaan-1 will be followed by Chandrayaan-2 which features a lander and a rover.

I hope that this post which is a reference from www.isro.org has briefed you about the progress
of Indian space research.India is not leaving its impression only the software world but also in space research.So tomorrow if any one says india is a third world country, just brief them this facts.I would personally refer you to go through the isro site for more information.please do post your comments.