Finally, the day awaited by all Indian has arrived.
The tricolour landed on the moon at 8.31 pm on Friday, opening a new chapter in the history of India’s space exploration.Along with the entities like US, former Soviet Union, Japan and the European Space Agency (17 nations) India has also joined the club.
The tricolour was painted on all sides of the 29 kg Moon Impact probe (MIP) which was attached to the top portion of the main lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan. The MIP is the brainchild of former President A P J Abdul Kalam.
Probe in electronics means either a Robotic probe, a robot that uses onboard instruments to gather and relay a variety of telemetry to controllers from remote, hazardous or otherwise difficult to reach locations or as a Space probe, a robotic probe operating in space.
| During its flight, its video camera took pictures of the Moon, the spectrometer began its analysis and the altitude meter did what is known as a ranging. While approaching the Moon, it slowed down slightly, then spun. While spinning, its three instruments went into action. When it was 5 km above the Moon’s surface, the altimeter did the ‘ranging of the Moon’. ‘‘All this while the atmosphere was pretty tense in the mission control room,’’ said a scientist.
Kalam’s rationale for including the MIP was that since Chandrayaan was orbiting the Moon at an altitude of 100 km above the lunar surface, a landing would make India’s presence felt on the Moon’s surface. He believed that if this was done, India could always stake a claim to a portion of the Moon.
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