It has been 1 year after the launching of india's Chandrayan Project. This article will take you through some aero space projects that launched, researched and provided us with valuable information about Moon-Earth's only natural satellite.

Man has always admired the beautiful round fullmoon which provided us with limelite. In olden times moon was considered as god. Every country has it's own mith about Moon. From that point of time the curosity in man has lead to the development of highly valuable details about moon including the presence of water in it.

Soviet Union and Moon

Most of their aerospace projects were known by the name Luna

Luna-1 :Soviet Union launched its first aerospace vehicle to moon in the year 2^nd January, 1959. After two days it entered 5,955 kilometer range and send some valuable information. After that it reached solar orbit.

Lunar-2 : This is the first vehicle to land in moon. This was launched on 12^th September, 1959.

Luna-3 :  This vehicle send many pictures of the other side moon which is not visible for us from earth.

This was launched on 4^th October, 1959.

Luna-9 : The main concern of aerospace scientists was whether the aerospace vehicle goes into the surface of Moon after landing. This concern was ended by the launching of this project on February, 1966 where a soft landing was done the vehicle.  This was a turning point in the history of aerospace.

Luna-10 : The first vehicle to enter the orbit  around moon. This was launched on 31^st March, 1966.

Luna-16 : This is the first auto pilot aerospace vehicle which has collected and send information to earth. It brought 100 grams of soil and stones from moon. It was launched on 10^th November, 1970.

Lunacodh-1 : When Luna-17 launched on 10^th November, 1970, this was the auto pilot vehicle carried by Luna-17 which landed in moon and travelled across for some distance. This is the first auto pilot aerospace vehicle travelled in moon.

U.S.A and Moon

Ranger-5 : This reached up to 360 kilometers near to moon but disappeared after that. It was launched on 18^th October 1962.

Ranger-8 : This was launched on 17^th February, 1965. It has send 7137 photos of moon a major share of which were close up pictures of moon.

Sonned-5 : Launched on 14^th September, 1968 orbited round the moon and came back to earth.

Surveyor : In 1966-67 America has conducted 7 surveyor aerospace projects and got around 70,000 valuable photos of moon. It has also found out that one can walk safely in moon’s surface. Surveyor-6 alone send 30,000 pictures of moon.

Lunar orbiter 1-5 : These 5 space shuttles were launched between 1966-67. These auto pilot shuttles found out the safest place for man to land in moon.

Lunar prospector : After a long gap America send  this shuttle in 1998 to study about moon. This shuttle gave some valuable information on the possibility of water in moon.

Appolo-1 : The first project that conducted studies on landing of  man in moon.  When the project was going on the three scientists Grism, Edward white and roger chaphy were killed.

Appolo-8 : This shuttle travelled with Frankborman,Jim lovel,William Anderson in it on 1^st December, 1968. This reached the orbit  of moon. 109 kilometer above it successfully rounded moon 10 times and came back safely to earth.

Appolo-11 :  In 21^st July,1969 before landing moon Amstrong said “ That’s one small step for a man, One giant leap for mankind”. Edwin Aldrin and Amstrong brought 21 kilo of rock and soil from moon.

Appolo-13 : In April 11, 1970 Indian time midnight 12.43 this shuttled started its journey. Due to some short circuit or electrical problem it’s oxygen tank was bursted. It created moments wherein everybody thought that it’ll create damage to the lives of James lovel, frid heyes and john swigert. But mission control technique successfully helped them to land in earth. Appolo-13  is known  as Successful failure.

Lunar Rover-The costliest jeep : This Jeep is used to travel in moon surface. It’s cost is 80 lacs dollar.

India and Moon : Chandrayan carried the hopes of above 100 crores of  Indians and reached the surface of moon.It was launched on 22^nd October, 2008 at Indian time 6.22 am from sriharikotta. It’s aim was to study whole moon like the amount of helium, iron, presence of water etc. On 14^th November, 2008 It landed in moon through ‘Moon Impact’ . India witnessed the minute of prestige when its tri color flag. ISRO chairman G.Madhavan Nair said “Presented moon to India”. After 10 months of study it completed 90-95% of the tasks assigned to it including the valuable finding of presence of water in moon. The moon mineralogy map connected to Chandrayan has also confirmed the presence of water in moon.

• Written by Sreekumar.
• In category Space.
• 15 years ago.

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