Indian Satellite Orbits Moon

[rvalkass 5]

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7718015.stm

 

India's first lunar satellite, Chandrayaan I, has entered an 11 hour orbit of the moon. Gradually this will be brought down until the satellite is 100km above the surface. From there it will carry out a 2 year long mapping mission, creating a 3D map of the surface of the moon, along with the elements and minerals on the surface. A separate probe will sample the atmosphere, and plant the Indian flag on the lunar surface.

 

Is this the start of a resurgent interest in the moon once again? Will we see more countries sending stuff up in to space? Or will the current economic climate mean we won't see any space missions for many years to come? Also, are people in support of space missions, or could the funding be better spent elsewhere?

[Echo_of_thunder 1]

So will they open a Quiki mart on the moon? sorry bad joke. I have always felt we should not have given up with the moon. If I remember right there was still 2 Appllo Missions to be done before t hey scarpped it for the shuttle.

[Saint_Michael 3]

It has been one of the hottest topics in the science community for the last few years, US, Russia, China, India and the European Union have been spending billions and thousands of man hours designing craft to land on the moon once again. Everyone has been projecting a moon landing between 2015-2020 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing and china has made their history by getting into space for the first time and of course doing their first EVA as well. Of course, the biggest question will be how much as technology improved since the first landing and will it just be as important as the first time, because you hit a good point Echo and that the world lost interesting by 1975 since they did what they needed to do.

[xpress 0]

Oh yes.....we did it. And our country became the fifth nation in the world who had sent a satellite to moon. It was launched on 22nd October. And finally on 8th Novemer chandrayan-1 successfully entered into moons orbit. This is the most important part of success, because almost 30% of the satellites failed at this stage. ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) did it successfully.The next important part is ahead. The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) in Chandrayaan-1 will collide with moon's surface on 15th of this month. India's flag was drawn on this MIP. So, this will become the official landing of India on moon.Inspite the success of Chandrayan-I definitely more countries will start projects about moon. The money spent on these projects is worth. The success of any country depends on many factors including its development in technology. And knowledge about the Universe is useful for the development of human kind. So, Research and Development of technology is very important and money spent on it is not wasted. Projects like this will help the people in the long run.

[rvalkass 5]

It has been reported that Chandrayaan-1 has successfully gone into it's first orbit at a height of 100km. The next stage is for the Moon Impact Probe to be released and monitor the atmosphere on the way down, and crash into the surface.

[joeblogg 0]

india has sent a satellite into space! i never knew that they would do that. i didn't even know they had plans to. but now most of the big countries want to control space including russia, china, india, usa, europe, australia - just kidding . space is very important to the major countries. countries like the us are spending billions of dollars trying to investigate outer space.

[Quatrux 4]

Very interesting news, it's good that more countries have their own Space Research Organizations, but whats the best is that all of them work together, that would bring much better results.

[iGuest 3]

I am really really surprised and pleased that there is not a single comment that goes like ".. Why isn't India caring about its poverty, malnutrition, blah blah... Instead of sending probes to the moon..."

Finally.. A forum where people really appreciate the effort of everyone involved in the moon mission instead of complaining and whining about India's poverty..

[rnichilo 0]

good job india! lol

[fermin25 3]

India??? WOW,I thought India was a poor country but since I know abour Bollywood and now this....I think is a great country.That means that the britain occupation work for them... Congratulations to the India.