249.The secret of the moon

Rockets always fascinated me right from my childhood days. Even while bursting crackers during festive seasons, my concentration would be on those fire-cracker-rockets which could propel up to around 100 feet. The topic for the day is Rockets.


The Russians and the Americans successfully tested un-manned Moon missions in the early Sixties. After almost 50 years India has done it. Yes the first Un-manned Moon mission,"Chandrayaan-1" was a success.

Chandrayaan-1 is India's first mission to moon and also the 51st satellite of the Indian Space Programme.The lifespan of this mission is two years.

What is the objective for launching Chandrayaan-1 ?

1) To design,develop and launch a spacecraft in lunar polar orbit using an Indian Launch Vehicle

2) Higher image resolution of lunar terrain along with Chemical and mineral mapping. (Hope they do not find urine samples there)

3) To enhance India's image in the Global scene by being a part of the select group which has the capability to observe planets/satellites directly.

What did Chandrayaan Carry?

1) Terrain mapper (To map the outer surface of the moon)
2) Mineral mapper ( TO map and sense for any new minerals)
3) Topography Mapper
4) Volatile object Mapper (To find if there are any volatile objects in the moon)
5) Moon Impactprobe (To find places in moon where a soft landing can be done)

Chandrayaan also carries 6 other loads from Germany, United States,Bulgaria,Sweden,Japan and UK

1) Mini-SAR from NASA (To distinguish water ice from dry lunar surface)

2)Mineralogy Mapper from NASA ( To map the geological composition of the moon)
3)Radiation monitor from Belgium ( For the study of solar particles in moon)
4)SARA from Sweden/Japan/India (Imaging of the moon's surface to measure moon's flux)
5) XRay Spetrometer from UK. ( Finding the abundance of various chemicals)
6)IR spectrimeter from Germany (To study lunar mineralogy)

The launch vehicle used for Chandrayaan-1 was none other than the tried and tested PSLV

1)The launch vehicle is 44.4 metre tall (PSLV-C11)

2) The propellant(fuel)weighs 138 tonnes (Now I realise that Rockets are indeed a big thing)

3) Moon is at a distance of 4,00,000 km from earth and Chandrayaan-1 will take 15 days to deposit all the 11 paylods in the respective orbits

4)The launch is a success but we have to wait for another 15 days to see whether all the 11 payloads have been placed in their respctive destinations.

Moon has been the only world other than Earth where human beings have set foot. No one knows whether moon has water particles or not. The moon has various other secrets too. Will Chandrayaan-1 reveal those secrets?

The man standing next to me in the picture is the brain behind this post.He is a Scientist and he heads the Liquid Propulsion plant (ISRO) of the country.I call him Papa (Daddy)

-Chronicwriter