“The snap was a key moment in the mission when the probe traveled on its own with its three instruments, including a video camera switched on and transmitting data via radio frequency back to the satellite,” Annadurai said.

Within minutes of the “snap,” data recorders aboard the spacecraft were flooded with information from the probe. This data will be received at ISRO’s Deep Space Network when the spacecraft is on a visible side of the moon in the early hours of November 15, ISRO officials said.

The probe, during its short life span of 25 minutes, carried on board equipment to analyse data crucial for future lunar “lander and rover” missions planned for Chandrayaan-2, slated for launch in 2011-12. For this, the MIP had a C-band altimeter which calculated the real-time height of the MIP during its descent, a video imaging system that provided close-up pictures of the moon as it came closer and closer to the surface, and a mass spectrometer for measuring the constituents of the lunar atmosphere.

Of these, the altimeter and the video-imaging system will be part of a future lander mission as well. The altimeter’s real-time data is crucial for the success of the lander. Unlike the MIP, a future landing mission won’t land at a designated location but will be able to guide its way to an appropriate site.

Key to this is data from the MIP’s video-imaging system. If the terrain is not hospitable, the lander will manoeuvre its way to a more “suitable” destination. Initial reports from ISRO said both these instruments on the MIP worked perfectly well and relayed data as expected.

... contd.