50 years ago Neil Armstrong had set his foot on the moon, becoming the first human to step on the moon. The curiosity in human beings about discovering things beyond Earth has resulted in numerous space missions.
 |
Mission
commander Neil Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera,
in frame Astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Image credit-NASA
Surprisingly,
NASA on its own failed 12 times before completing an orbital mission
called Ranger 7 in 1964. Apollo 11 in 1969 was the first crew
landing mission on the moon.
(Image credit: NASA)
|
ISRO,
on the other hand, was formed in 1962 as INCOSPAR (The Indian National
Committee for Space Research) with urging scientist Vikram Sarabhai. In 1969
under the tenure of Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru INCOSPAR
became ISRO.
Indian
Space Research Organisation is managed by the Department of Space which
directly reports to the Prime Minister of India.
As compared
to NASA, ISRO launched its first satellite Aaryabhatta in 1975
whereas in 1969 NASA was the one to land humans on the moon.
ISRO
started growing fast under DOS. It launched various satellites and rockets (launch
vehicles).
ISRO
launched its first mission in lunar probe Chandrayaan in Oct 2008. At first, Chandrayaan only had lunar orbiter in its mission. Orbiter's main objective was
to design and develop a 3D atlas of both near and far areas of the moon.
APJ
Abdul Kalam’s vision
A Moon
Impact Probe (MIP) was added which was a product of late former President
of India APJ Abdul Kalam’s vision. He suggested that since Chandrayaan orbiter
was already going near to the moon, using a Moon Impact Probe can contribute more
to the mission.
APJ
Abdul Kalam’s political stake on this was
“If
this probe was done, India could always stake a claim to a portion of the moon”
“No
nation can claim the moon as its own. The resources of the moon should be
common property to all”
- Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Late Former Former
President of India
Moon
Impact Probe was designed to crash land on the moon surface after separating
from Chandryaan.
MIP,
after separation continuously sent data to Chandryaan orbital for 25mins,
after which it crash-landed on 14 Nov 2008 at speed of 6100km/hr. MIP crashed Shackleton
crater at the lunar south pole. The location of the impact on the moon was
named Jawahar point.
MIP
crash-landed hard releasing underground matter which was analyzed by the orbiter
for discovering the presence of water ice on the moon.
So
who did it first NASA or ISRO?
NASA
had contributed 2 instruments to Chandrayaan mission, from which was Moon
Mineralogy Mapper (M3). It was designed to provide high
resolution spatial and spectral maps of the entire moon surface and analyzing
minerals present.
On
September 24, 2009, Science magazine reported NASA Mapper on Chandrayaan-1 detected
water on the moon.
On
September 25, 2009, ISRO MIP also reported
to discover water on the moon just before the impact and this was discovered
before NASA Mapper.
So
ISRO MIP discovered water on moon surface making India the first country to
find water on the moon.
This announcement was not made until NASA confirmed it.
Comments
Post a Comment