Oct 22 2008
From The Space Library
Chandrayaan 1, India’s first lunar satellite, launched at 00:52 (UT), aboard a PSLV-C11 rocket from Sriharikota, India. The 1.4-tonne (1,400-kilogram or 3,086.47-pound) spacecraft was on a two-year mission to map the lunar surface. It carried 11 scientific instruments: five instruments from India, three from ESA, two from NASA, and one from Bulgaria. NASA’s instruments were the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) and Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR). M3 was an imaging spectrometer that would create the first map of the Moon’s entire surface at high spatial and spectral resolution. Because the map would show the mineral content of the lunar surface, scientists could use it to understand the geological origin and development of the Moon and the terrestrial planets. Additionally, lunar astronauts could use the map to locate water or other resources. Mini-SAR, an imaging radar, would map the permanently shadowed polar regions, helping scientists learn about possible locations of water ice and the nature of objects that hit the Moon. NASA’s ground tracking station at the Johns Hopkins University APL would provide space-communications support to Chandrayaan 1.
Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 660, 1 November 2008, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx660.html (accessed 4 August 2011); NASA, “NASA Returns to the Moon with Instruments on Indian Spacecraft,” news release 08-263, 20 October 2008, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/oct/HQ_08-263_NASA_on_Chandrayaan-1]].html (accessed 8 August 2011).
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