Indian Moon Impact Probe lands on Moon

Yesterday, India’s Moon Impact Probe (MIP) landed on moon and placed the Indian tricolour on the lunar surface. MIP, one of the 11 payloads of India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, successfully hit the lunar surface on November 14, 2008, at 20:31 hrs (8:31 pm) IST. Weighing 34 kg at the time of its launch, MIP carried three instruments – a video imaging system, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer. The following picture of lunar surface was taken by the Indian probe, before it landed on moon.

MIP’s 25 minute long journey to the moon surface began with its separation from Chandrayaan-1 at 20:06 hrs (8:06 pm) IST. This was followed by a series of automatic operations that began with the firing of its spin up rockets after achieving a safe distance of separation from Chandrayaan-1. Later, the probe slowed down with the firing of its retro rocket and started its rapid descent towards the moon’s surface. During the descent, information from the its instruments was radioed to Chandrayaan-1. The spacecraft recorded this in its onboard memory for later readout. Finally, the probe crash-landed on the lunar surface. The point of MIP’s impact was near the Moon’s South Polar Region.

Chandrayaan-1 was successfully launched by PSLV-C11 on October 22, 2008 from India’s spaceport at Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. Then on November 8, 2008, Chandrayaan-1 entered into it’s planned lunar orbit. Later, the orbital height was reduced in steps to its intended operational altitude of 100 km from the lunar surface.

Category: Space | Tags: Chandrayaan-1, India, ISRO, Space