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In the race to explore space, there may be a new moon on the rise. In the same week that NASA declared the Mars Phoenix mission over, India dropped an impactor, which crash-dived onto the moon's surface today, the Associated Press reports. The Moon Impactor Probe (MIP) was carried by India's moon satellite, Chandrayaan 1, which entered lunar orbit earlier this week.

The MIP, painted with the flag of India, was blown to smithereens after crashing into the moon at about 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) per hour. Before its planned crash, however, it sent photos and data that India will now use to plan a 2011 moon rover mission and a yet-unfunded manned mission. It was one of 11 instrument payloads on Chandrayaan 1, which means "moon craft" in Sanskrit.

India has now joined an elite group--the U.S., Russia, the European Space Agency, China, and Japan--that have sent missions to the moon.

Photo of a waxing gibbous moon by Kevin via Flickr

12 Comments

1. 1. jhstans 03:58 PM 11/16/08

   I wonder how much they learned tht could not be found in 30 yer old library books?
   

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2. 2. gambori 02:38 AM 11/17/08

   Dirty poor Indian politicians should be feeding their hungry instead of shooting rockets at the moon

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3. 3. akshaymalhotraindia in reply to jhstans 02:40 AM 11/17/08

   theory could be wrong .. like the earth was flat initially.

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4. 4. cyriac 08:02 AM 11/17/08

   The title should probably read "Indian probe INTENTIONALLY crash-lands onto the moon" :D
   @gambori - Feeding the hungry and exploring space are mutually exclusive and can be done simultaneously. Besides, the goal of India's space program is to become a source of income by sending up satellites for other countries. The moon mission is partly a "proof of technological capability" i.e. we may be poor and corrupt, but we're also smart and efficient.

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5. 5. 2005whitesox in reply to cyriac 10:25 AM 11/17/08

   Poor and corrupt does not equal efficient. It equals poor and corrupt.

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6. 6. RanaPratap in reply to gambori 10:21 PM 11/18/08

   Gambori, I would really like to know if you are a Republican or Democrat?

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7. 7. littlebrit 12:34 PM 11/19/08

   Most of the comments display the disturbing xenophobia that too many Americans seem to harbor. We need to wake up to the fact that there are other nations out there that have as much right as we do to expand their technological knowledge and expertise.

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8. 8. rtsinister 12:09 AM 11/22/08

   I'm very interested to see and compare moon surface photos from the Indian probe and the NASA astronauts' photos. I truly believe that the American Moon landings were a hoax.

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9. 9. rtsinister 12:13 AM 11/22/08

   My question is: Is the Chandrayaan 1 going to make the return trip to earth?

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10. 10. carlos.salazar 04:23 PM 12/4/08

    Hi there, my congratulations to the Indian people, in my opinion, there is a an important advance in the research and investigation that they have done, and if the politicians don't take the bad way, that will make some improvements in the technology fields and in the technology industry and that means less poverty and hungry.
    I'm convinced that who the world need is to reinvent the wheel in many fields, specially the countries that don't own the technology, that's is experience and innovation.

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11. 11. rtsinister 02:28 AM 12/5/08

    Is there anyone out there that can convince me that the American moon landings were real? I say they were not and I dare anyone to challenge my evidence.

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12. 12. kcheriyan 08:09 PM 3/1/09

    Apparently, you don't have evidence that the moon landings were a hoax, rtsinister. For every insignificant lie that you can find online and in some cases, books, there is ample evidence from others to refute it. Note that others does not consist of just NASA.

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