Chandrayan I

Chandrayan I

Summary: Chandrayan I

Chandrayan I

Article Body: It was on July , that "Eagle", the lunar module landed on the moon and American Astronaut Neil Armstrong took "that one small step" paving way for "a giant leap for mankind" .

In -, India will launch Chandrayan I, which will be closely followed by China's CHANGE-I. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is spear-heading all the activities in the field.

Chandrayan I, India's first unmanned mission to moon was announced on August , . The Chandrayan I mission envisages placing a kg satellite in a polar orbit km above the moon and it will be launched using a modified version of India's indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The main objectives of the Chandrayan include obtaining imagery of the moon's surface using a high resolution remote sensing instruments in the visible, near infrared, low and high energy X-ray region.

Considering the interest shown by the international scientific community, a provision has also been made to accommodate instruments from other countries, on Chandrayan-. ISRO signed an agreement with ESA for including European instruments on board Chandrayan-. The European Instruments are to complement the main India experiments. The US is also considering placing up two instruments on Chandrayan-.

Whether India should embark on a manned mission or not is a subject of national debate since sending a man to the moon is a very costly affair. A manned mission would take seven to ten years to accomplish and would cost at least$. billion.