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ISRO probe Chandrayaan aimed to map the entire surface of the moon.
Exactly 10 years ago, a PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch System) rocket in its XL configuration carried the first Indian space probe – Chandrayaan – beyond Earth's orbit.
Over the past five years, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) spacecraft has been mapping the entire moon's surface, including the hidden, non-visible face of the Earth. In addition, the orbiter of the size of a rickshaw performed a mineralogical mapping of the lunar surface.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the launch, here are five essential facts to know about the prestige project of India.
Chandrayaan transported payloads from other countries, organizations
The orbiter carried five Indian instruments and six foreign instruments. Four of the international companies were mineral mappers. Two of them were built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the two others were a collaboration between JPL-Brown University and NASA and a partnership between an ISRO-ESA-Rutherford Appleton laboratory, United Kingdom.
The other two payloads were a Lunar Atmospheric Radiation Monitor from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and a lunar water detector built by NASA with the help of ISRO.
The Indian flag
While the main job was an orbiter circling the moon, Chandrayaan Also had an impactor called the Moon Impact Probe (MIP). His goal was to separate from the orbiter and crush on the moon, take pictures along the way and study the lunar atmosphere. On November 14, 2008, he ejected from the orbiter and flew in 31 minutes, taking with him an image of the Indian flag. The crash made India the fourth country to place its flag on the moon after the Soviet Union, the United States and Japan.
Read also: The jargon-free search is the latest ISRO tool to bring the universe to our salons
Discovering the water
After crashing to the surface of the Moon, the MIP moved the ground and exposed the inner layers of the surface to be studied. On September 24, 2009, NASA announced that its embedded instrument Chandrayaan had detected water. The following day, ISRO announced that its MIP payload, named Chandra's altitudinal composition explorer (CHACE), had detected it three months earlier and was awaiting confirmation from NASA. As MIP was in free fall to the surface, he recorded more traces of water.
Confirmation of the "totally liquid" theory
The well-accepted theory of moon formation today is "the giant impact hypothesis". It is written that a body the size of Mars, called Theia, collided with the primitive Earth while it was forming. The collision completely vaporized the body and partially the Earth, resulting in a mixture of nuclei. The excess material of this melted body then spread, starting to orbit around the Earth and melting into a ball. This ball was completely liquid at a given moment, before cooling and solidifying to form the Moon. NASA's Moon Mineral Mapper on board Chandrayaan analyzed the surface and confirmed this theory in 2009.
Read also: India wants to build a computer 10,000 times faster than today's best and beat China
Disappearance and reappearance
Chandrayaan should last two years, but the mission lasted only 10 months. On August 28, 2009, after 312 days in orbit, communication with the spacecraft was lost. The loss of contact can not be explained with certainty, the ISRO scientists guessing that the most likely reason would be frying the orbiter's power supply by excess radiation around the moon. The mission was declared completed and successful with 95% of its objectives achieved. The orbiter had to make its way into the moon and crush it in 1,000 days.
However, seven years later, in 2016, NASA ground radar triggered microwave pulses on the lunar orbit and studied them for three months. They could verify that Chandrayaan is still in orbit and continues to be, although the craft can not be restored.
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