Page 21 - NIS English 16-30 September, 2023

India on the Moon Cover Story

ISRO'S MISSION

India's dream of making foray into space was seen
in 1962 by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and formed the Indian
National Space Research Committee which later
became ISRO.

n CHANDRAYAAN-1: India's first moon mission. On 22
October 2008, India launched Chandrayaan-1 for the
first time. This 1380 kg spacecraft had an orbiter and
an inspector. Its job was to revolve 100 km away from
the surface of the moon. America, Britain, Germany,
Sweden and Bulgaria helped in the mission. It made
more than 3400 revolutions around the Moon, ending
the mission in August 2009 when contact was lost. n MANGALYAAN: India completed the first mission to
It is considered a pioneer in global lunar missions. It send a spacecraft to a planet by reaching Mars at a
has confirmed the presence of water molecules on cost less than that of an auto rickshaw fare. Rs 450
the Moon, and has been published in more than 200 crore was spent on the entire mission. That means,
publications around the world. according to the distance of 65 crore km of Mars,
the cost is about Rs 7 per km whereas the fare of
n CHANDRAYAAN-2: ISRO launched Chandrayaan-2
from Earth on July 22, 2019. The 47-day mission was auto rickshaw is more than Rs 10 per km. Not only this,
not a complete success when the Chandrayaan-2 India also held the record of being the first country
lander crashed after losing contact at the last to reach the orbit of Mars in its maiden attempt. ISRO
moment when it was about to land on the Moon. This became the fourth space agency to reach Mars orbit
mission was important because data from its orbiter after Roscosmos, NASA and European Space Agency.
revealed the presence of chromium, manganese, n ARYABHATA: Aryabhata was India's first satellite
and sodium for the first time through remote sensing. which was launched on April 19, 1975 from the
This will also provide more information about the Cosmos-3M launch vehicle. Aryabhata was named
magmatic evolution of the Moon. The orbiter is still after the Indian astronomer. It was built by ISRO and
circling the moon and sending information. launched by the Soviet Union.

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