Moon Impact Probe

Did You Know?

• The MIP discovered water on the Moon before NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, but the announcement was delayed until NASA confirmed it.
• The main objectives included demonstrating technologies for reaching a specified lunar location and qualifying technologies for future soft landing missions.

History

The probe originated from a suggestion by former President Abdul Kalam, who argued that including the probe would increase the scientific relevance of the Chandrayaan orbiter mission. The Times of India reported a political motive: Kalam believed that if India did this, it could stake a claim to a portion of the Moon. However, The Indian Express quoted Kalam as saying that no nation can claim the Moon and that its resources should be common property.

Configuration and payloads

The MIP carried three instruments: a Radar Altimeter operating at 4.3 GHz ± 100 MHz to measure altitude during descent; a Video Imaging System with an analog CCD camera for close-range surface images; and a Mass Spectrometer called CHACE, a quadrupole mass spectrometer with a mass resolution of 0.5 amu and sensitivity to partial pressures around 1.3×10−11 pascals, to measure trace constituents of the lunar atmosphere. The probe used an aluminium-honeycomb sandwich structure, attached to the orbiter via a ball lock separation system. A solid propellant de-orbit mortar nudged it out of lunar orbit, and solid propellant thrusters spin-stabilized it. Four oval anodised aluminium plates (120 x 180 mm) bearing the Indian flag, the Emblem of India, and the words "Satyameva Jayate" were attached to the probe's vertical sides, designed to endure temperatures from −50°C to over 150°C.

Mission chronology

Chandrayaan-1 launched on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 06:22 IST (00:52 UTC). The MIP separated from the orbiter in a 102 km circular polar orbit around the Moon at 20:06 IST on 14 November 2008. After firing spin-up rockets and a retro rocket, it descended for 25 minutes and struck the Moon at 20:31 IST on 14 November 2008, impacting at 1.69 km/s into Shackleton Crater.

Site location and naming

The approximate impact location was named Jawahar Sthal after India's first Prime Minister, on whose birth anniversary the impact occurred. The name was suggested by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam to honor his vision for INCOSPAR and later ISRO. The refined location was later identified as the Earth-facing slope of the connecting ridge between Shackleton and De Gerlache craters, determined by matching MIP camera images to LROC NAC image mosaic.