Chandrayaan-1 successfully launched

Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to the Moon, was successfully launched earlier this morning from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) in Sriharikota, India.

The PSLV-C11 rocket, an upgraded version of the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO's) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, lifted off at 00:52 UTC and, about 20 minutes later, injected the spacecraft into a highly elongated orbit around the Earth.

This marked the beginning of Chandrayaan-1's journey to the Moon, which will culminate with a major manoeuvre - the lunar orbit insertion - in about two weeks. Once the spacecraft is orbiting the Moon, further manoeuvres will progressively lower its altitude to the final 100 km-high circular orbit.

At the earliest opportunity, the spacecraft will eject the ‘Moon Impact Probe' to provide information about the lunar surface. The mission will then continue from orbit, with remote-sensing studies carried out by its 11 scientific instruments. Three of these instruments were provided by Europe (UK, Germany, Sweden) through ESA.

A new step in India-Europe collaboration

India and Europe began collaborating on space ventures when, in 1978, the first cooperation agreement between ESA and ISRO was signed. In 1981, an Ariane 1 launcher carried India's first geostationary satellite, Apple. So far, 13 of India's INSAT satellites have flown on Europe's Arianes.

Chandrayaan-1, ISRO's first mission beyond Earth orbit, marks the beginning of a new era of collaboration between ESA and India in space science.

ESA is making the expertise gained thanks to its SMART-1 lunar mission (2003-2006) available for this collaboration. Apart from coordinating and supporting the provision of the three European instruments (C1XS, SIR-2 and SARA, versions of the first two of which flew on SMART-1), ESA assisted in areas such as flight dynamics and is supporting data archiving and processing. As a result of the collaboration, ESA and ISRO will share the data from their respective instruments.

"In an era of renewed interest for the Moon on a world-wide scale, the ESA-ISRO collaboration on Chandrayaan-1 is a new opportunity for Europe to expand its competence in lunar science while tightening the long-standing relationship with India - an ever stronger space power," said Prof. David Southwood, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration. "While the exploration of space calls for new challenges to be overcome, joining forces is becoming more and more a key to future successes."

"We congratulate ISRO on the successful launch this morning and we are eagerly looking forward to science to begin," Southwood concluded.

The European instruments on board are:

• The Chandrayaan-1 Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer (C1XS), developed by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the UK in collaboration the ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. It will measure the abundance of magnesium, aluminium, silicon, iron and titanium over the surface of the Moon.
• The Smart Near-Infrared Spectrometer (SIR-2), developed by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Science, Germany. It will explore the mineral resources of the Moon, the formation of its surface features and the different layers of the Moon's crust.
• The Sub-kiloelectronvolt Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA), developed by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics in collaboration with the Space Physics Laboratory of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, India. It will study the way the Moon's surface interacts with the solar wind, and the surface's magnetic anomalies.

NASA returns to the Moon with instruments Chandrayaan-1

Two NASA instruments to map the lunar surface will launch on India's maiden moon voyage. The Moon Mineralogy Mapper will assess mineral resources, and the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar, or Mini-SAR, will map the polar regions and look for ice deposits.

Data from the two instruments will contribute to NASA's increased understanding of the lunar environment as it implements the nation's space exploration policy, which calls for robotic and human missions to the moon.

"The opportunity to fly NASA instruments on Chandrayaan-1 undoubtedly will lead to important scientific discoveries," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said. "This exciting collaboration represents an important next step in what we hope to be a long and mutually beneficial relationship with India in future civil space exploration."

• The Moon Mineralogy Mapper is a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer that will provide the first map of the entire lunar surface at high spatial and spectral resolution, revealing the minerals that make up the moon's surface. Scientists will use this information to answer questions about the moon's origin and geological development, as well as the evolution of terrestrial planets in the early solar system. The map also may be used by astronauts to locate resources, possibly including water, that can support exploration of the moon and beyond.
• The Mini-SAR is a small imaging radar that will map the permanently shadowed lunar polar regions, including large areas never visible from Earth. The Mini-SAR data will be used to determine the location and distribution of water ice deposits on the moon. Data from the instrument will help scientists learn about the history and nature of objects hitting the moon, and the processes that throw material from the outer solar system into the inner planets.

In addition to the two science instruments, NASA will provide space communications support to Chandrayaan-1. The primary location for the NASA ground tracking station will be at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

Sources: ESA / NASA
	More on • Chandrayaan-1 • Lunar Exploration