Tricolour reaches moon; Mission Chandrayaan-I accomplished
Nov 14, 2008
Source: DDI

The Tri-colour reaches moon. As part of New Delhi's first unmanned lunar mission, the Moon Impact Probe detached from the unmanned lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1, and touched the lunar surface a short while ago. It will film the lunar surface and transmit the information back to the mother craft as it hurtles towards the moon. Spokesman for the Indian Space Research Organization, Mr. Ramachandra Rao Guruprasad said in Bangalore, one of the objectives of this probe is to understand the moon for future soft-landings.

The two-year mission seeks high-resolution, three-dimensional imaging of the moon's surface, especially the permanently shadowed polar regions. It will also search for evidence of water or ice and attempt to identify the chemical breakdown of certain lunar rocks.
The craft is carrying payloads from the United States, the European Union and Bulgaria, and India plans to share the data from the mission with other programs, including NASA.

It's a historic moment for the country, as the Indian tricolour left its imprint on the earth's natural satellite, the moon. Miniature Indian flags painted on four sides of the moon impact probe landed on the moon's surface, making it epoch event. The probe will take pictures and transmit them back to the ground. It's basic function is to demonstrate the technologies required for landing a probe at the desired location on the moon and also help in developing technologies for future soft landing missions.

The UPA Chairperson Mrs. Sonia Gandhi has congratulated the country's scientists on the spectacular achievement in placing the tri-colour on the Moon surface. In her message she said that this is indeed a historic moment and we are all proud of our scientists.
Mr. Madhavan Nair, Chairman of ISRO expressed happiness at the successful operation of moon impact probe hitting the surface of the moon. He aptly said, moon was very favourable to us and we have given the moon to India. The moon impact probe separated from the space craft at eight hours six minutes and took 25 minutes to land near Shackleton crater on moon.