Chandrayaan-1
Chandrayaan-1 — India's first mission to the Moon, launched by ISRO on 22 October 2008. From a polar orbit about 100 km up it mapped the Moon's chemistry and minerals, and NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper aboard it found the infrared signature of hydroxyl or water in the top millimetres of the surface, strongest toward the poles. It sent a probe into the surface near the south pole on 14 November 2008. Contact was lost on 28 August 2009; in 2016 NASA's radar found the silent spacecraft still orbiting the Moon. (Its orbit is drawn to its published height; its position on it is representative.)
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- ISRO
- Launched
- October 22, 2008
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 1 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 0.282 AU
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.324 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
Chandrayaan-1 was India's first mission to the Moon, launched by ISRO on a PSLV rocket from Sriharikota on 22 October 2008 at 00:52 UTC. It entered lunar orbit on 8 November and by 12 November was in a polar orbit about 100 km up. It carried instruments from India, Europe, Bulgaria and the United States. On 14 November it released the Moon Impact Probe, which struck near the south pole at 15:01 UTC, sending back images and measurements as it fell. The probe's final images later placed the impact on the ridge between the craters Shackleton and de Gerlache, near 89.55°S, 122.93°W; earlier estimates put it elsewhere near the pole, and its crater has not been found. NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper on board found an absorption in the infrared near 3 micrometres, the signature of hydroxyl or water, in the top millimetres of the surface, strongest at cool high latitudes; the finding was published in 2009 with confirmations from two other spacecraft. NASA's Mini-SAR radar found more than 40 small polar craters whose radar signature suggests ice. Years later a new analysis of the mapper's data found ice exposed at the surface in some permanently shadowed places near both poles. In May 2009 the orbit was raised to 200 km. Contact was lost on 28 August 2009 (UTC), after 312 days in orbit, and ISRO ended the mission. In July 2016 NASA's Goldstone radar found the silent spacecraft still circling the Moon about 200 km up.
- 2008Chandrayaan-1 launches toward the Moon on a PSLV rocketLaunch
From Sriharikota.
- 2008Into lunar orbitArrival
At first 504 × 7,502 km; lowered to about 100 km by 12 November.
- 2008The Moon Impact Probe strikes near the south poleMilestone
At 15:01 UTC, returning images and measurements as it fell.
- 2009Contact lostMission end
After 312 days in orbit; ISRO ended the mission days later.
- 2016Found by radar, still in orbitMilestone
NASA's Goldstone radar detects the silent spacecraft about 200 km above the Moon.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image