About Chandrayaan-1
- Chandrayaan-1 was the first Indian lunar probe under Chandrayaan program.
- It was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in October 2008, and operated until August 2009. The mission included a lunar orbiter and an impactor.
- India launched the spacecraft using a PSLV-XL rocket on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
- Then Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced the Chandrayaan 1 project on course in his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2003.
- The mission was a major boost to India’s space program, as India researched and developed its own technology in order to explore the Moon.
Objectives
The mission had the following stated objectives:
- To design, develop, launch and orbit a spacecraft around the Moon using an Indian-made launch-vehicle
- To conduct scientific experiments using instruments on the spacecraft which would yield data:
- for the preparation of a three-dimensional atlas of both the near and far sides of the Moon
- for chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface at high spatial resolution, mapping particularly the chemical elements magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, iron, titanium, radon, uranium, and thorium
- To increase scientific knowledge
- To test the impact of a sub-satellite (Moon Impact Probe – MIP) on the surface of the Moon as a fore-runner for future soft-landing missions
