India to mark entry on Moon Friday

Bangalore, Nov 13 (PTI) The Indian flag is all set to
mark its presence on the lunar surface for the first time
Friday as a moon probe with the tri-colour painted on it
will detach from Chandrayaan-1 and descend onto the earth's
natural satellite.

"The Moon Impact Probe (M.I.P.) is expected to be
detached (from Chandrayaan-1) at around 10 PM tomorrow,"
Indian Space Research Organisation (I.S.R.O.) spokesperson S
Satish told P.T.I.

Miniature Indian flags are painted on four sides of
M.I.P. "It will signify the entry of India on Moon," Satish
said.

"During its 20-minute descend to the moon's surface,
M.I.P. will take pictures and transmit these back to the
ground," he said.

M.I.P. is one of the 11 scientific instruments
(payloads) onboard Chandrayaan-1, India's first unmanned
spacecraft mission to Moon launched on October 22.

The spacecraft Wednesday reached its final orbital
home, about 100 kms over the moon surface after I.S.R.O.
scientists successfully carried out the last critical orbit
lowering operation.

Developed by I.S.R.O.'s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
of Thiruvananthapuram, the primary objective of M.I.P. is to
demonstrate the technologies required for landing a probe at
the desired location on the moon.

The probe will help qualify some of the technologies
related to future soft landing missions. This apart,
scientific exploration of the moon at close distance is also
intended using M.I.P.

The 29-kg M.I.P. consists of a C-band Radar Altimeter
for continuous measurement of altitude of the probe, a video
imaging system for acquiring images of the surface of moon
from the descending probe and a mass spectrometer for
measuring the constituents of extremely thin lunar atmosphere
during its 20-minute descent to the lunar surface.

I.S.R.O. officials are confident that the M.I.P. would
withstand the impact once it hits the lunar surface. "Most
probably it will not disintegrate," an I.S.R.O. official said.

From the operational circular orbit of about 100 km
height passing over the polar regions of the moon, it is
intended to conduct chemical, mineralogical and photo
geological mapping of the moon with Chandrayaan-1's 11
scientific instruments (payloads).

Two of those 11 payloads - Terrain Mapping Camera
(T.M.C.) and Radiation Dose Monitor (R.A.D.O.M.) - have
already been successfully switched on. T.M.C. has successfully
taken the pictures of Earth and the Moon.

After the release of M.I.P. Friday, the other
scientific instruments would be turned on sequentially leading
to the normal phase of the two-year mission. PTI RS
AM