After a gap of three decades, there has been a revival of interest among the scientific community for exploring the moon.
Chandrayaan-1 will lift off by mid 2008, thus marking the beginning of India’s moon mission. Chandrayaan-1 will then enter into a polar orbit around the moon, about one hundred kilometers from the moon’s surface, for a period of two years. The main objective of the mission is to map the entire lunar surface and to prepare a 3D atlas of the moon by means of remote sensing. The long term objective is to develop the necessary infrastructure to mine the moon for minerals and energy.
Perhaps the most important factor behind the revival of interest is that the moon is now believed to be capable of supporting life. Traces of water ice have been detected at the moon’s poles – and scientists estimate that there could be as much as ten billion tons of ice on the moon. One of Chandrayaan-1 objectives is to look for this ice.
Another important objective is geopolitical. Indian scientists believe that once it becomes technically feasible to mine the moon, the next logical step would be the establishment of lunar colonies. Chandrayaan-1 is an unmanned mission. Though in terms of gathering data unmanned missions are more productive and cost effective (as life support systems are not required), the logic of the situation dictates that India develop manned capability wihin the coming decade. As a first step towards realising this goal, Chandrayaan-2 is being prepared for launch in the year 2010.
No new technology was developed specifically for the Chandrayaan-1 project, as India already has sufficient expertise in the fields of satellites, remote-sensing and launch vehicles. It is to the credit of India’s cientific community that the total cost of the Chandrayaan-1 mission is only one hundred million dollars – a fraction of what a similar project would cost in other, more developed nations.
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