Chandrayaan-1 is a remote sensing mission proposed to be launched from the Satish Dhawan Launch Station at Sriharikota in 2007 by the Indian Space Research Organization using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. It will be injected into 240×36,000 km Elliptic Transfer Orbit (ETO) around the Earth and will be inserted in a circumlunar orbit (LOI) via Lunar Transfer Trajectory (LTT). The launch profile is discussed in detail in an accompanying paper (Adimurthy et al 2005). It will enter the lunar orbit at about 1000 km altitude and brought down to 100 km polar circular orbit in one or two stages. The lunar craft is designed to orbit the moon for a period of two years during which it will carry out chemical, mineralogical and topographic study of the lunar surface. There are several questions which are critical for understanding the formation and early evolutionary history of the Moon, and the Chandrayaan-1 mission objectives have been formulated keeping this in mind.
Mission objectives
The main objective of the mission is simultaneous chemical, mineral and topographic mapping with the specific goal of understanding the early evolution of the Moon. Chemical stratigraphy can provide better estimation of the average lunar composition and processes responsible for chemical differentiation of the Moon. Transport of volatiles, specifically water, and their deposition in the colder regions of the Moon and degassing of the Moon can be understood by using radon and its daughter nuclide 210Pb as tracers.
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