Celebrating India's moon moment

• The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : Celebrating India's moon moment

  • October 22
  • Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDCS), Sriharikota, at 6.22 a.m. on October 22, 2008,
  • Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University, Rhode Island, U.S., who was also principal investigator of the Moon Minerology Mapper (M3) on board Chandrayaan-1
  • The panel also revealed, for the first time, that it was a tiny 110-gram part that cost merely $5000 which brought down the $100-million mission
  • A part called a ‘DC-DC converter,' very much akin to a tiny transformer that was imported from an American company, Modular Devices Inc.
  • Chandrayaan-1 also began a rather unique spirit of international partnership and collaboration as it was an Indian mission with international partners, carrying onboard six scientific instruments from the U.S., the European Space Agency and Bulgaria. No extra fee or travelling ticket was charged by India to fly these instruments over 4,00,000 km — all overseas partners really got a free ride to the moon.
  • A revisit to the moon this time with a lander and a rover is planned for 2013;
  • a mission to study the sun called Aditya is cooking; a fly-by mission to an asteroid is being considered; and scientists are already nurturing dreams of sending an unmanned mission to Mars within a decade. On its second birthday, let us celebrate India's moon moment!