Video of the moon from Chandrayaan

What you see here is the first video of the moon, and was taken by the terrain mapping camera of Chandrayaan. The short video was shot as the spacecraft flew over the area near the moon's south polar region.

ISRO officials are gung-ho about the terrain mapping camera, built by the agency's Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad, which they say has been beaming back amazing pictures of moon's surface from its orbit 100 km above the lunar surface

On November 14, the Moon Impact Probe had sent back photographs of the moon's surface even as it detached from the Chandrayaan and hurtled towards the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-1 gets back to work

A day after landing India’s first probe instrument on the surface of the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was on Saturday getting ready to activate eight other scientific instruments on board the country’s first unmanned lunar spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1 that is now orbiting the moon and will do so for the next two years.

The box-shaped 35-kg moon impact probe (MIP), with the colours of the Indian flag painted on its four sides, touched down on the lunar surface at 8.31 p.m. Friday. It has sent high quality images of the moon taken while descending the 100 km to its destination after detaching from Chandrayaan-1.

The primary objective of landing the MIP was to demonstrate the technologies required for landing a probe at a designated location. Through this probe, it is also intended to qualify some of the technologies related to future soft landing missions. MIP has been developed by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, a unit of ISRO.

“We are analysing the images and other data sent by MIP. We are also getting ready to switch on and test the remaining eight payloads (scientific instruments) of the spacecraft in the coming few days,” an ISRO spokesperson said on Saturday. “We have not yet decided the dates and timing to carry out this exercise but it will be pretty soon,” the spokesperson said.

The MIP is the third of the eleven payloads that has begun functioning. Earlier the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM) were switched on while Chandrayaan-1 was on its way to the moon, around 384,000 km from Earth. The payloads on Chandrayaan-1 include five entirely designed and developed in India, three instruments from European Space Agency (one developed jointly with India and another with Indian contribution), one from Bulgaria and two from the US.

The Indian payloads include a terrain mapping camera (TMC) to map the lunar topography, capturing black and white 3-D images. It can also photograph a 20 km-wide strip of the lunar surface from as close as five metres.
Chandrayaan-1 will use high resolution remote sensing in the visible, near infrared, microwave and X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to map the moon. It will enable preparation of a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and help map it chemically.

Such high resolution imaging would help in better understanding the process of lunar evolution. Used with data from lunar laser ranging instrument (LLRI), it can help in better understanding of its gravitational field as well.
The camera has been built by Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad.
The Hyperspectral Imager (HySI), another camera built by SAC, is designed to obtain data for mapping minerals on the lunar surface as well as for understanding the mineralogical composition its interior.

The LLRI will provide data for determining the accurate altitude of Chandrayaan-1 above the lunar surface. Data from LLRI will also enable understanding internal structure of the moon and the way large surface features of the moon have changed with time. It has been built by the ISRO Lab for Electro Optic Systems (LEOS), Bangalore.

Chandrayaan-1 will use a High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX) to carry out the first spectral studies of ‘hard’ X-ray energies using good energy resolution detectors. HEX is designed to help explore the possibility of identifying polar regions covered by thick water-ice deposits as well as in identifying regions of high uranium and thorium concentrations. HEX is built jointly by the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) of Ahmedabad and ISRO.

The foreign payloads include C1XS of European Space Agency for high quality x-ray spectroscopic mapping of the moon, Near Infra Red spectrometer (SIR-2) of Germany and ESA, Sub keV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA) from ESA in collaboration with ISRO, Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR) and Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) from the United States and RADOM of Bulgaria.

India emerging as major space power

India has successfully placed its flag on the lunar, becoming the fourth nation to have done so.

The Indian Space Research Organisation, which was formed merely 36 years ago, is now catching up with its American, French, and Russian counterparts. ISRO really has end-to-end capabilities in space.

Few know that it already has several world records to its credit and in times to come will be able to give other nations a run for their money in the commercial operations as well.

India's maiden moon mission has been a blazing success.

First images of the pristine lunar surface taken by the Indian impact probe as it dashed to the lunar surface at over 6000 kilometers per hour, or at about ten times the speed of Jumbo Jet are stunning. It's not easy to take photos on a dashing suicide mission.

The Chandrayaan Mission also has many firsts to its credit.

This satellite carries the largest suite of scientific instruments ever to be carried to the moon, 14 in all.

At Rs 386 crores, it is the cheapest moon mission of the 21st century. It is an Indian mission with 14 countries as international partners.

No country till date has been able to achieve successfully both an orbiter and a lander on its maiden mission.

Indian scientists have reasons to rejoice, and applauding them is also the world community.
"This indeed is a world record, no other country has carried so many instruments to the moon in a single satellite, all top of the line," said Dr Alok Chatterjee, project engineer, NASA.

The Indian space agency also has other world records to its credit for its rocketry and satellites.

By launching 10 satellites in a single shot, ISRO created a world record in April 2008. India today has the largest constellation of civilian remote sensing satellites in the world, nine in all.

With 11 communication and weather satellites India's fleet in space is the largest in the Asia Pacific region.

India is the first country to be successful in its maiden moon venture and the first to wishfully land a probe on the lunar pole.

By effectively delivering the Chandrayaan satellite with just no time or cost over runs, ISRO really is a shining example of what India can do.

India is indeed emerging as major power house for space exploration and with this string of success behind it ISRO is certainly ready to conquer the next big unknown frontier and make that giant leap to Mars and beyond.