The launch of Chandrayaan-1 two years ago marked a new dawn for India, which showcased the country's technological prowess at its best.
Two years ago, India's destination moon began on a wet windy morning from an island on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. As most of India slept, on rainy October 22 when the sun had barely peeped out of an ominous cloud band, a 300-tonne monster belching fire and thunder leapt up from the coast. It was literally a new dawn for India, showcasing the country's technological prowess at its best. It was with nervous energy that I watched India's coming out party, one may suggest, in launching its maiden mission to the moon.
It was a dramatic moon rise for a country where over a billion hearts were beating in anticipation of the success of its maiden mission to the moon. The successful takeoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDCS), Sriharikota, at 6.22 a.m. on October 22, 2008, was a spectacular, copybook launch for Chandrayaan-1 and one that catapulted India into a small clutch of powerful, space-faring giants across the world. Calling it a historic moment achieved against tremendous odds, G. Madhavan Nair, then Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said: “Today what we have charted is a remarkable journey for an Indian spacecraft to go to the moon and try to unravel the mysteries of the Earth's closest celestial body and its only natural satellite.”
A remarkable journey had undoubtedly begun. The success of the launch finally allayed concerns at lightning that was occurring in the atmosphere due to rain and stormy weather; also a fuel leak in the launch pad caused some worry.
Almost a year after its launch, the first-ever evidence of water on the moon made worldwide news. Space science experts from NASA and India said “the moon is not bone dry” and the real impact of this discovery is only beginning to hit us. Led by Carle Pieters, Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University, Rhode Island, U.S., who was also principal investigator of the Moon Minerology Mapper (M3) on board Chandrayaan-1, the team published what is now termed a game-changer discovery — of these “distinct signatures of water on the moon.” The Indo-American team discovered water on the moon as a thin, invisible film covering on what we for half-a-century thought was a parched, waterless pock-marked moonscape.
When Chandrayaan-1 was aborted 10 months after launch, a year and more before originally planned, there was intense scientific debate on whether the mission had succeeded or failed. The finding of water has changed the flavour and direction of that debate forever. Mr. Nair emphatically stated, when quizzed about the mission's premature end, that it was a success because the mission had achieved 95 per cent of its original goals before the official termination. Nearing the second anniversary of the historic launch, a high-power review committee set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has concluded that “the scientific experiments could only cover 70 per cent of the moon.” The panel also revealed, for the first time, that it was a tiny 110-gram part that cost merely $5000 which brought down the $100-million mission. As one ISRO engineer remarked, “it was an ant that killed the elephant.”
A part called a ‘DC-DC converter,' very much akin to a tiny transformer that was imported from an American company, Modular Devices Inc., is what failed. Not one but five of them sequentially failed onboard Chandrayaan-1, causing the premature termination of the mission. The probe committee, in its 50-page report, faulted ISRO on its testing and quality assurance for not having detected the poor quality of this vital imported component. But at the same time the panel concluded, “the management of Chandrayaan-1 mission particularly after the occurrence of failures, clearly points out to the maturity of ISRO in mission management.” Dubbing the mission “quite successful,” the Prime Minister's panel concluded that Chandrayaan-1 “has brought great prestige to India.”
There can be no doubt that the mission united India like never before and the discovery of water was the icing on the cake. “Never seen before images of the permanently shadowed craters of the Moon have been captured,” said Paul D. Spudis of the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, principal investigator of the payload sent to search for water. “The new radar images are not only visually arresting, but they will be extremely useful in unravelling the complex geological history of the Moon as a whole,” he says.
The real impact and significance of this finding may make its dimensions felt only in the years to come. As Dr. Pieters herself says: “This opens a whole new avenue [of lunar research], but we have to understand the physics of it to utilise it.” Isn't it intriguing that moon rocks available after the Apollo missions never showed any sign of water on analysis, which is why experts always held that the moon was dry, except possibly for some pockets of water ice in the shadowy craters at the poles?
Chandrayaan-1 also began a rather unique spirit of international partnership and collaboration as it was an Indian mission with international partners, carrying onboard six scientific instruments from the U.S., the European Space Agency and Bulgaria. No extra fee or travelling ticket was charged by India to fly these instruments over 4,00,000 km — all overseas partners really got a free ride to the moon.
Despite its premature death, India's maiden mission returned many scientific goodies, including the life giving message that the moon is moist. This startling discovery came about even though Chandrayaan-1 was the cheapest mission to go the moon in decades. Now the excitement is so high that a whole new generation of interplanetary missions is on the anvil. A revisit to the moon this time with a lander and a rover is planned for 2013; a mission to study the sun called Aditya is cooking; a fly-by mission to an asteroid is being considered; and scientists are already nurturing dreams of sending an unmanned mission to Mars within a decade. On its second birthday, let us celebrate India's moon moment!
(Pallava Bagla is the correspondent for SCIENCE magazine and co-author of the book Destination Moon — India's quest for the Moon, Mars and Beyond. Views expressed are personal. He can be reached at pallava.bagla@gmail.com)
Keywords: Chandrayaan-1, ISRO
Wow, for once we're reading something positive about India. A refreshing change. ISRO has shown us Indians that the extraordinary may be achieved with dedicationa and effort, nevermind the flawed DC-DC converter. We should all take inspiration from ISRO and other such Indian institutions which command respect. "Age bardho".
Well its once again proved how India contributes to the "think tank" of the world in a true sense. Just gives me another reason to become proud just for being an Indian. Hoping that ISRO propels its efforts more and achieves many more such milestones in future and represents India on the global map.
Success doesn't come easily and that to without failure. But it is sheer dedidcation and sacrifice and courage filled with confident, bring success. Chandrayan- 1 mission did not fulfill two year as per plan, but it fulfilled its mission of putting India and ISRO in lime light and even if the water was found by NASA, one should not forgot it was the Chandrayan- 1 that put their piece of equipment in the first place. Secondly and most importantly have we learnt form the mistake. The biggest mmistake of using American equipment which ultimately cost the mission. We should have the confidence in our scientists and get the euipment in India rather than from other country. I still remember when INSAT series was launched two of the four INSAT was failed and one was partially worked, leaving one was complete success. It was all MADE IN USA.
Mr.Obama should be asked to remove the ISRO from the black list.The major objectives of the ISRO are scientific not military.Chandrayaan- 1 discovered the presence of water on the moon but the credit was taken by NASA.Chandrayaan-2 should focus on the polar crater.One day Indian astronauts will land on the lunar surface.India has already mapped the lunar surface for the minerals.Guess who gets the benefit?Their instruments get the piggy ride on the Indian orbiter and India gets black listed.
We should be proud of the achievement. However, I would like to point out that a critical component like DC-DC convertor should have been purchased from different manufacturers to avoid the common mode of failure. Also probability of failure should have been assessed for an expensive mission like this. We do this type of analysis all the time when we design. I am not sure how this was missed while evaluating the probability of failure analysis. Very expensive Lesson Learnt, I guess.
Well,truly it was an exceedingly glorious moment for over a 1 billion INDIANS when Chandrayan-1 showed to the world that moon has ,really has,water present in it in some form or the other thus breaking the age long conviction that moon is completely dry! I feel it was a very fortunate moment because the discovery of water molecules have given a hope to the mankind that life can exist even outside EARTH and surely in the years to come we might witness people purchasing land on moon and may be one day they might start living on MOON
I was both proud and elated on hearing the success of Chandrayan-1. But that pride and elation was overshadowed when NASA claimed the credit for finding water on the moon with the help of their payload on Chandrayan-1. At the same time some doubts in my mind remains unanswered about the US claim of having landed man on the moon in the 70s. Was it was a stage-managed one? If there is deposits of ICE in the moon's craters how come that it does no have oxygen and hydrogen (at least)? If the ice remain static and deposited in the craters of moon and not floating (as in the space), how come that moon does not have gravitation? Further, a new study by ISRO says that the moon full moon, has a role to play in respect of the incidents of earthquake. Is it because moon's gravity pulling the plates on the earth or vice-versa?
BS Kumar's comment are typical example of how we Indians are critical of our own sucess. There would be mearly half a dozen countries in the world confident of their own satellite technologies, India is proudly part of this club. And here comes a man who calls this success as a micro achivement. If Mr Kumar is so staggered by the US-Russia success, can he explain why no other country could repeat the feat achieved by Apollo astronauts in last 50 years? Space technology is definately not for those people who keep their thoughts confined by the boundries of countries. It's more about the Human race. Get some life, Mr. Kumar!!
The longest journey to the utmost frontiers of space begins with a tiniest of steps - a flight to the moon. It is exhilerating to be part of the great adventure of building the intergalactic autobahn to the blue yonder, to boldly go where no human has gone before. Beam me up ISRO!
This article should really make every Indian proud considering the fact our chandrayaan-1 was the first to prove that moon was moist. Kudos to ISRO and the Indian government which made it possible.
Something other countries did in the 70s with a human payload, and we're proud of putting a machine on the moon nearly forty years later? Not bad for a developing country, but what tangible benefits did this project bring to us? This united us like never before? This author must be caught in the euphoria of this micro achievement. Our first cosmonaut went on board a Russian craft, and the discovery of water on the moon was done by a US built instrument. We provided the ride, but this was by no means a high profile, groundbreaking development in the world of space research.
The lunar mission was great and there is more to come. The key as article points out is practical experiences vs sheer intelligence. I wrote a article last year on intelligence vs innovation in India ( www.biproinc.com/building_india.pdf )I am not privy to the details. One could imagine that a risk assessment would have pointed to battery's as mission critical. This could have led to redundancy as well as better quality check.There in lies the difference between the American and Indian ways.As a note, we must remember that it was space and defense programs and still it remains that way which has kept USA at the front of economy. India must use the mission for more technological development and not just buy components, assemble and launch. That would be waste of money only to create a hollow pride.
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