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Updated: January 06, 2009 16:00 IST

In India's quest for the moon, the Chandrayaan-1 became the first instrumented Indian mission to the moon and also the first ISRO venture to leave Earth's gravity, heralding India's ascendancy to the exclusive group of moon faring nations.

The moon, the earth's nearest neighbour has about four billion years of solar system history preserved in it, and over the decades it has evoked intense curiosity and awe.

As the lunar aircraft fast approaches the moon- a blazing success so far- and we move closer toward exploring the unknown facets of this celestial phenomenon, send in all your questions and our Science Editor Pallava Bagla will answer them here.


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Answered Questions | All Questions

Amita Padegaonkar, Pune: How will India’s moon mission impact the world?

Pallava Bagla says: The Indian mission is in a way a coming out party for the country. Having inked the nuclear deal now the technology denial regimes are over and India is ready to take on the world through complicated technological missions. So, till date there are only 5 nations which have conducted missions to the moon- namely, Russia, America, Japan, China and the European space agency and India would be the sixth country to attempt such a mission which will definitely impact the global world order.

Vishal Malhotra, Atlanta: I understand there is lot of self pride and techology worthiness in successful launch of the mission but my question is what we are trying to achive scientifically ( Any new discovery or finding?) by sending the probe to moon since russia and US have already sent number of missions and they all must be aware of the info that we are planning to get?

Pallava Bagla says: The Indian mission is carrying the largest suite of scientific instruments ever to be carried on the moon by any country till date. It is likely to provide scientific information and at the same time all missions to the moon are also ways by which countries showcase their technological prowess. This mission offers an excellent opportunity for India to send a message to the world that it is ready to take up challenging tasks. There’s no doubt that in the 20^th century Russia and America launched several probes to the moon and landed human beings there but, alas, there are far too large gasp in the knowledge we have about the moon. The Russian and American missions mapped in detail only the sides where they landed the probes. But the moon is much larger than that and not fully explored. The Indian mission with its 2 year life hopes to map both the near side and the far side of the moon. In fact, Americans themselves are flying instruments on Chandrayaan-1.

kamran, Ambur: Why is the Carrier named as PSLV C11?

Pallava Bagla says: PSLV-C11 stands for Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle number 11; this will be the 14^th launch of this rocket and till date it has completed 12 consecutively successful launches- an enviable track record for space missions.

Siddhartha Jana, Kolkata: Could you please explain the various steps involved in this moon mission. Have recently read a lot about it in magazines and scientific journals but no report till date has made it simple enough for the common man to understand the mission and its implications. Does it involve the landing of an Indian rocket on the moon?

Pallava Bagla says: Standing tall and majestic, though hidden in its giant garage, is the Indian rocket that will lift off carrying with it India’s maiden spacecraft for the moon, Chandrayaan-1. This is an all Indian mission with international partners and in its two year mission life it will map the lunar resources like never before. The rocket that will carry India's first unmanned satellite to moon... is as high as a 7-storey building...and weighs nearly 300 tonnes the weight of about 50 full grown elephants.

One after the other, four stages of the rocket will ignite, taking Chandrayaan higher into space.

The Chandrayaan will first make a few revolutions around the Earth so that it gathers enough momentum to reach the moon. But it will take several days before it covers the 4 lakh kilometres to reach its destination.

The satellite will be captured by moon's gravity and initially it will revolve nearly a thousand kilometers from the moon's surface.

But finally it will move closer to nearly 100 kilometers literally over the moon! Once that's done, it will spend the next two years mapping the moon's surface and sending data to India. And among the first things it will do, it will be to plant India's national flag on the moon.

With the tricolor on the moon, geopolitics will be over with India having established its supremacy on the moon. Then as part of its many other scientific challenging objectives, this multi-continent mission will begin the most intense search ever undertaken for life giving water on the moon.

Dr. Stewart Nozette, NASA and Lunar Planetary Institute, Houston, USA said, “We have designed and built this instrument for Chandrayaan-1 to search for the water ice over the lunar poles and will be most extensive search of this type in history.”

Once scientific data has been gathered sending it back to knowledge hungry scientists is another big challenge. Digitally talking to India’s moon craft will not be easy when it is almost 400,000 kilometers away near the moon, and to gather these faint signals a giant 32 meter dish antenna that weighs 60 tons has been erected at a tiny village called Bylalu near Bangalore. A part of the hi-tech data center is still under construction at this quiet village, where unsuspecting laborers continue their activity of taking India to the moon mostly working with their bare hands. Two diverse Indias come together!

Vivek Kumar, Nashik: How much time does it take to reach the moon?

Pallava Bagla says: It normally takes about five and a half days to cover the 400,000 km distance to the moon, but this being India’s maiden mission, scientists from ISRO are exercising immense caution and hence the Indian mission, if it takes off on October 22^nd, will rendezvous with the moon only on November 8^th. This extra time has been given to validate several necessary assumptions which would make sure that India’s mission is successful.

Rajshree Chela, Mysore: Can India afford such an expensive mission?

Pallava Bagla says: For this answer, I would quote Dr K. Kasturirangan, former Chairman, ISRO, who says, “It is not a question of whether we can afford to go to the moon. It’s whether we can afford to ignore it.”

Laxmikant Minz, Kharagpur: How will this mission help India? Is it worth the money being spent on it?

Pallava Bagla says: The Indian moon mission is a very cost effective way of exploring an unknown frontier, the moon. The mission is a scientific quest on part of the Indian scientists to map the lunar resources at a resolution like never before. So it is likely to throw up several new unknown facts about the moon. It will definitely help India in the ling run.

Sumit Arora, Delhi: Is Oct 22 going to be any different for us human beings on earth? Will we feel the impact of the moon mission in any way?

Pallava Bagla says: While on the one hand, October 22^nd, if that’s the day when India launches its mission to the moon, may not be very different immediately, since still the sun will rise from the east and set in the west- it could become a date marked in history several years from now. If and when lunar resources are ever shared by the world community, at that point India would have had established its gain on the fore well ahead of several other nations.


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