http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/FullcoverageStoryPage.aspx?id=09f450bc-6d34-4818-9f47-a22a87e727f5Indiasmoonmission_Special&&Headline=After+moon%2c+it%e2%80%99s+mission+Mars+for+Indian+scientists
After moon, it's mission Mars for Indian scientists
FULL COVERAGE
Enlarge
Reuters
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C-11 blasts off carrying India's first
unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-1 from the Satish Dhawan space centre at
Sriharikota.
October 21, 2008
BR Srikanth, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Sriharikota, October 23, 2008
First Published: 00:35 IST(23/10/2008)
Last Updated: 02:08 IST(23/10/2008)
There was no uncorking of champagne, no historic poses for the cameras, no
after-launch parties, no grand statements.
Seconds after India's moon rocket rode a blaze of flame into the dawn sky from
Sriharikota spaceport, a gaggle of reserved, mostly south Indian scientists at
Mission Control on this Bay of Bengal island pumped fists, briefly hugged each
other, flashed a thumbs-up sign to the media, shared a meal and travelled back
to their facilities across south India.
Wednesday's flight of the 316-tonne polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C11)
from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre was a dream come true for about 1,000 space
scientists and technologists."We met for a mission review and later shared a
meal. That's all," said Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Director K Radhakrishnan.
"The Chairman has left for Bangalore, and we are heading back to our places (of
work)."
"I am back at work in Bangalore at nine tomorrow morning," Chandrayaan-I
project director Mylaswamy Annadurai told HT.
By dusk, the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and its mother ship - the workhorse Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle - were orbiting the earth, gathering pace to free
themselves from earth's gravity and slingshot themselves to the moon.
Chandrayaan-I is scheduled to reach its orbit 100 km from the Moon (about 3,
86,000 km from earth) on November 8, and drop the Moon Impact Probe, with the
Indian tricolour painted, on it a week later.
The launch marked the beginning of new initiatives to study other celestial
bodies of the solar system - Mars, asteroids and comets. These efforts would
coincide with plans to send an Indian into space by 2015.
Addressing his colleagues, Indian Space Research Organisation chairman Gopalan
Madhavan Nair called the launch a "historic moment".
"We have started our journey to the Moon and the first step has gone off
perfectly well," he said. "It's a remarkable performance by the launch vehicle
and every parameter was on the dot."
India's next target: Mars, the 4th planet from the sun and more than 146 times
further from the earth than the moon.
"Mars is the next natural destination," Nair told reporters. "We've just
started planning for it and are looking for proposals from our scientific
community to design instruments for an orbiter to the red planet."
Nair also spoke about Chandrayaan-II, a Rs 425 crore joint Indo-Russian
mission, planned for 2012. "The lander (a clutch of instruments that will land
on the Moon) will be designed and made by Russia, while we will design other
experiments," he said. "If we have some more space, then we will invite
international teams."
Wednesday's flight of the 316-tonne polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C11)
from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre was a dream come true for about 1,000 space
scientists and technologists.
The flawless flight was preceded by some anxious moments: Overcast skies, a
nagging problem with the rocket fuel as it was loaded on to the rocket during
the countdown.
"We lost almost all hope of making a launch on Wednesday morning due to
inclement weather," said Nair. "To our luck, the rain gods and the clouds kept
away."
