Chandrayaan-1 is the first lunar mission of ISRO and also the first mission with international partners. It is designed to orbit the Moon at an altitude of 100 km and carries 11 scientific instruments including radar and particle detectors as well as instruments that will make observations in the visible, near infrared and soft and hard X-rays.
Chandrayaan-1 was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on 22nd October, 2008 and it entered the lunar orbit on 8th November, 08.
In orbit around the Moon, Chandrayaan-1 CIXS detected the X-ray signal from a region near the Apollo landing sites on 12th December, 08.
ISRO said: "The solar flare that caused the X-ray fluorescence was exceedingly weak, approximately 20 times smaller than the minimum CIXS was designed to detect. The X-ray camera collected three minutes of data from the Moon just as the flare started and the camera finished its observation".
ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said: "The joint development of CIXS in Chandrayaan-1 between ISRO and RAL, UK, is a major achievement. First signatures obtained from CIXS are highly encouraging".
M3 AND INDIA'S FIRST MISSION TO THE MOON
The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) is one of two instruments that NASA is contributing to India's first mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1 (meaning "Lunar Craft" in ancient Sanskrit), which launched on October 22, 2008. M3 is a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer that will provide the first map of the entire lunar surface at high spatial and spectral resolution, revealing the minerals of which it is made.
Scientists will use this information to answer questions about the Moon's origin and development and the evolution of terrestrial planets in the early solar system. Future astronauts will use it to locate resources, possibly including water that can support exploration of the Moon and beyond.
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