Chandrayaan I snippets

It was a champagne moment. At exactly 5.04 pm (IST), Chandrayaan-I was inserted into the lunar orbit, a heart-stopping manoeuvre that marks the success of India’s first moon mission. Toasting the event, K Kasturirangan, who had kicked off the mission, said, “This is undoubtedly a great moment for India because nearly 50% of the moon missions of other countries have not been successful.’’ India has now entered the exclusive moon club that has as its members only the US, the former Soviet Union, Japan, China and the European Space Agency.Cock-a-hoop scientists said that after the successful Pokhran nuclear tests of May 1998, Saturday’s achievement marked another great Indian scientific accomplishment. This is the first time that an Indian satellite has left the grip of the Earth’s gravitional force.“We have done it. We have done it for the country. All the systems are working well. During the last 20 minutes, everyone’s hearts had stood still. Our boys have done it very well,’’ Isro chief Madhavan Nair said on Saturday evening.Kasturirangan explained that the LOI was a nail-biting moment because two moving objects—the moon and Chandrayaan—had to rendezvous successfully. The insertion had to be done at a precise point when the gravity of the moon and that of the earth cancelled each other.According to Isro officials, Chandrayaan’s liquid engine was fired for 817 seconds when the spacecraft passed at a distance of about 500 km from the moon to reduce its velocity and enable the lunar gravity to capture it and take it around the moon. Chandrayaan’s speed was reduced 366 metres per second when it flew into the moon’s orbit.The spacecraft is now orbiting the moon in a elliptical orbit that passes over the polar region of the moon. The nearest point of this orbit (periselene) lies at a distance of about 504 km from the moon’s surface while the farthest point (aposelene) is 7,502 km. Chandrayaan would take about 11 hours to go around the moon in this orbit. M Annadurai, project director, said during the next few days, the altitude of the spacecraft will be gradually reduced and brought to a circular orbit only 100 km from the moon.Isro officials said nearly 150 scientists and engineers had gathered in the mission control room right from the afternoon. “They were nervous. A second after 5.04 pm, when Chandrayaan signalled that it had entered the moon orbit, the team broke into applause, hugging and embracing each other and exchanging congratulatory handshakes,’’ an official said. The next exciting prospect is the launch of the 29-kg Moon Impact Probe which will crashland on the lunar polar region with the Tricolour on November 15.