15.11.08

The Indian tricolour is on the Moon !




The Indian tricolour landed on the moon at 8.31 pm on Friday opening a new chapter in the country’s space history. Other countries which have their flags on the moon are the US, the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency (comprising 17 nations). India thus becomes the fourth entity to join the global moon club. (Japan too has its flag on the moon, but thanks to a malfunction that sent its orbiter Hiten crashing onto the lunar surface in 1993.) The tricolour was painted on all sides of the 29-kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP) which was attached to the top portion of the main lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan. The MIP is the brainchild of former President A P J Abdul Kalam who witnessed its separation from Isro’s mission control room in Bangalore. Isro officials said that the countdown for the MIP’s much-awaited flight to the surface of the moon began at 7.47 pm. It went off smoothly and at 8.01 pm the command was issued for it to separate from the orbiting spacecraft. This done, the MIP began its flight towards the moon’s south pole and after a 25-minute flight, crashlanded. ‘During the MIP’s flight, its video camera took pictures of the moon, the spectrometer began its analysis and the altitude meter did what is known as a ranging. While approaching the moon, it slowed down slightly, then spun. While spinning, its three instruments went into action. When it was five km above the moon’s surface, the altimeter did the ‘ranging of the moon’. “All this while the atmosphere was pretty tense in the mission control room,’’ said a scientist.Former president Abdul Kalam’s rationale for including the MIP was that as Chandrayaan was orbiting the moon 100 km above the lunar surface it would be worthwhile if there was a landing which would make India’s presence felt on the moon’s surface. He believed that if this was done, India could always stake a claim to a portion of the moon.The MIP first transmitted its signal on its successful landing to the main orbiting craft, which in turn relayed it to Istrac. The whole process took less than 1.3 seconds. Isro chairman Madhavan Nair said, “We have planted the national flag near the Shackleton crater.” He said the terrain mapping camera on board had taken wonderful pictures of the moon’s surface from a distance of five km.

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