Moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite. The Moon has no atmosphere and probably never had one to any conspicuous extent, and life does not seem to have ever been present before men landed there. The Moon is the nearest celestial object to Earth. The Moon rotates such that the longest axis always points in the general direction of Earth. If the Earth and Moon were point masses or rigid spheres whose density varied only with distance from their centers, and no other celestial body existed, then the orbit of the Moon about the earth would be a fixed ellipse.
Indian space scientists are extremely hectic in preparing India’s first ever - unmanned systematic and indigenous mission to Moon, which is 24,000 miles away from Earth. The complete estimate of Chandrayaan project is Rs. 3860 million. This mission is to be launched by Oct. 2008 and is considered an instinctive manifestation of India’s scientific mellowness and technological superiority. The spacecraft is scheduled for launch on October 22 with a window fixed between Oct. 19 and 28.
Chandrayaan is an unmanned lunar mission by ISRO. The mission includes a lunar orbiter as well as an impactor. The spacecraft will be launched by a modified version of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The remote sensing satellite will weigh 1304 kg (590 kg initial orbit mass and 504 kg dry mass) and carry high resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infrared, soft and hard X - ray frequencies. Over a two-year period, it is intended to survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography. Polar Regions are of special interest, as they might contain water ice.
Chemical mapping:
The payload configuration of Chandrayaan embraces a terrain cartographic panchromatic camera having special resolution of 80 meters with a swaddle of 40 km for making a three dimensional high-resolution cartography and a pulsed laser ranging instrument to map the moon’s...