Chandrayaan1

Chandrayaan-1 was India’s first lunar probe, developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was launched on October 22, 2008, aboard the PSLV-C11 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The mission aimed to survey the Moon, map its surface, determine its mineralogical composition, and search for water ice and hydroxyl deposits as part of India’s broader future exploration program.

The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft consisted of a lunar orbiter that carried 11 scientific instruments from ISRO, NASA, ESA, and others. The payload included the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) for high-resolution surface imaging, the Hyper-Spectral Imager (HySI) for mineralogical analysis, the Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS), and the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) supplied by NASA. The mission also hosted the Mini-SAR radar imager and a Lunar Laser Ranging Retroreflector Array to enable measurements of Earth–Moon distances. A small Lunar Impact Probe (LIP) was released from the orbiter in November 2008 to study the lunar surface during descent.

Chandrayaan-1 operated in a near-polar, low-altitude orbit around the Moon, providing global maps and science data for about 10 months. In 2009, data from M3 and other instruments provided strong evidence for water molecules on the lunar surface, confirming the presence of hydroxyl and water ice in certain regions. This finding significantly influenced subsequent plans for lunar exploration and resource assessment.

Contact with Chandrayaan-1 was lost in August 2009, marking the end of the mission. The mission's data and discoveries contributed substantially to lunar science and established ISRO as a capable player in planetary exploration.