Chandrayaan 1 holds the title of the first lunar mission of India. Since Chandrayaan 1 included an impactor and an orbiter, it is also called the Moon Impact Probe. It was on 22nd October 2008 when ISRO launched India’s first lunar space probe which later led to the greatest discovery of water in the moon’s atmosphere. So why Chandrayaan 1 failed and what are the achievements of Chandrayaan 1? As per the information about Chandrayaan 1, there are many interesting facts about Chandrayaan 1 regarding the purpose and launch of Chandrayaan 1. Read this to know more about all such things.
Information About Chandrayaan 1
Chandrayaan-1 Purpose
The launch of Chandrayaan 1 has purposes such as:
- To do chemical and mineralogical imaging of the north and south poles of the moon.
- To search for lunar water ice on the surface or subsurface.
- To do chemical stratigraphy of the lunar crust.
- To identify chemicals present in lunar highland rocks.
- To map the height of various lunar surface features.
- To observe the x-ray spectrum with stereographic coverage of the moon’s surface.
Chandrayaan-1 Cost
Chandrayaan 1 was estimated to have been launched with a cost of ₹386 crores, which makes it 48 million US dollars.
Launch of Chandrayaan 1
The launch of Chandrayaan 1 was scheduled on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre using the PSLV C11 launch vehicle. It was successfully inserted into lunar orbit on 8th November 2008. On 14 November 2008, Chandrayaan 1 successfully crash-landed on the lunar surface near a crater at the south pole, called Shackleton.
With all such information about Chandrayaan 1, other questions come to our mind; what are the achievements of Chandrayaan 1 and the reason why Chandrayaan 1 failed? To know more about the same read here.
What Are The Achievements Of Chandrayaan 1?
Given below is the list of what are the achievements of Chandrayaan 1:
- Water molecules were found in the soil of the moon by Chandrayaan 1.
- Chandrayaan 1 found large caves on the surface of the moon that can possibly be used as human shelter in future.
- Chandrayaan 1 also captured the landing site images of the USA’s spacecraft, Apollo-15 and Apollo-11.
- Aluminium, magnesium and silicon traces were found by Chandrayaan’s x-ray camera.
- Around 40,000 photos were sent by Chandrayaan 1 in mere 75 days.
- Chandrayaan 1 was the first to transmit the entire image of Earth.
- It was Chandrayaan 1’s transmitted images that confirmed that the moon’s surface is mostly filled with craters 3.
Also Read- India Mangalyaan Mission – Mangalyaan Achievements, Facts, Figures And Mangalyaan 2 Launch
Is Chandrayaan 1 Success or Failure?
The launch of Chandrayaan 1 was set to the moon with the designated aim of surveying the lunar surface for two years. So, is Chandrayaan 1 a success or failure? Well, to answer that, Chandrayaan did achieve 95% of its objective. But, on 28th August 2009, Chandrayaan 1 stopped transmission and communication with earth completely, following which, the ISRO formally declared that India’s moon mission was now over.
Why Chandrayaan 1 failed?
The Chandrayaan 1 orbiter started malfunctioning after almost a year. It suffered several technical issues along with the failure of the star tracker and sensor. The moon impact probe is also suspected to have poor thermal shielding which can be the possible cause of its failure.
Also Read- Facts And Contribution Of Vikram Sarabhai – Father Of Indian Space Program
Interesting Facts About Chandrayaan 1
Here are some quick and interesting facts about Chandrayaan 1 given below:
- Chandrayaan 1 is named after the Sanskrit origin word, which means Moon Craft.
- The size of the spacecraft was similar to a refrigerator’s, with a dry weight of about 525 Kg.
- The spacecraft worked on solar energy stored in Lithium-ion batteries placed on its board.
- One of the interesting facts about Chandrayaan 1 was that its satellite design is based on a meteorological satellite made by ISRO in 2002.
- Apart from water, Chandrayaan 1 also detected the presence of hydrogen-oxygen chemical bonds and studied other radioactive elements on the lunar surface.
Conclusion
The Chandrayaan program has since then launched one more Chandrayaan mission, which was named Chandrayaan 2. However, the lander crashed in its attempt to land on the lunar surface. India’s Space Research Organization ISRO says that they will keep reattempting the mission to study the objectives from Chandrayaan 1. We’ll wait for 2023 for the launch of Chandrayaan 3.
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