Yet another Asian country joined the race for (the exploration of) space Wednesday: India successfully launched a two-year mission today. The goal of the mission is to study the surface of the moon.
Chandrayaan-1, or “moon craft” in ancient Sanskrit, was launched at 6:20 AM local time. It is an unmanned lunar orbiter which will make high-resolution images ‘of the moon’s surface, especially the permanently shadowed polar regions, according to the Indian Space Research Organization. It will also search for evidence of water or ice and attempt to identify the chemical breakdown of certain lunar rocks, the group said.’
Miles O’Brien, CNN chief technology and environment correspondent explained that despite many missions to the moon in the last 5 decades, “we really don’t have a good map” of the moon. As such, India’s mission is of tremendous scientific value.
For India, Chandrayaan’s mission is also aimed at paving the way for future space explorations of one of the fastest growing economies on earth. “It will also give us a deeper understanding about the planet Earth itself or its origins,” the country’s Space Research Organization said in a statement on its website. “Earlier missions did not come out with a full understanding of the moon and that is the reason scientists are still interested. This will lay the foundation for bigger missions and also open up new possibilities of international networking and support for planetary programs.”
Watch the mission that put India in the top of technologically developed countries:
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