A glimpse into the lunar history...
From times immemorial man's life was connected to the celestial bodies. in the Quaternary age itself man realized there are many objects that made rounds in his routine without being noticed. It is a fact that, it is mostly the moon that has influenced his daily life, besides the sun.
He considered it as God, as a deity and transformed his life in accordance with the changes happening to it. festivals, religious functions, travel, migration, meals etc became dependent on the different phases of the Moon.
Man's enthusiasm to explore more about their miracle on the sky paved way for the many important milestones in the history of astronomy as well as man's life. The discovery of principles behind the phases of moon, knowledge on its revolutions around the earth, its physical features, the influence of moon on the oceans(causing tides), its chemical composition, theories that stated its origin etc were some of them which seek importance. one invention led to the other one. But they all remained devoid of proves until 1959, when earth sent its first lunar mission Luna-1(USSR) on January 2,(my birthday:) )which was a lunar flyby. Luna-2 which crash landed on the moon, provided magnificent evidences of the various characteristics of the surface of the Moon. the Luna-3 of USSR made available the first far side images of the moon. Luna-9 made the first lunar soft landing. Luna-10 became the first Flyby to return to earth.
Apollo -8 was the first manned mission and Apollo-10 was the first mission and orbiter. Apollo-11 took man to Moon. Apollo12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 carried man to moon, last one with the first geologist on moon. the last one was on Apollo 17, on 7th December 1972. recent missions like Hi ten(1990 Jan 24), clementine (1994 Jan 25), Lunar Prospector(1998 Jan 6), Smart-1(2003 September 27), Kaguya (2007 September 14), change-1 (2007 October 24) etc are helpful for further knowledge also. The rock samples brought from moon exhibited unbelievable similarities with that of earth's soil. the oldest rocks of moon was about the same age of the earth. The basaltic rocks of maria shows similarities to the rocks formed from the lava of the volcanoes of the earth. Even though India is far ahead than many of the world nations in different aspects the history of the 'First Indian on the space" was created only in 1984 April 7, through the Salyut 7 spacecraft. But still India missed an opportunity to send an independent spacecraft to explore the wonderful moon, until October 22, 2008. That day from Satish Dhawan Space center, Sriharikkota in Nellore district of Andra Pradesh, which is 80 km north to Chennai t the moon was launched at 6.22am. This great achievement India has ever accomplished is named Chandrayaan-1.
Read more on Chandrayaan-1
He considered it as God, as a deity and transformed his life in accordance with the changes happening to it. festivals, religious functions, travel, migration, meals etc became dependent on the different phases of the Moon. Man's enthusiasm to explore more about their miracle on the sky paved way for the many important milestones in the history of astronomy as well as man's life. The discovery of principles behind the phases of moon, knowledge on its revolutions around the earth, its physical features, the influence of moon on the oceans(causing tides), its chemical composition, theories that stated its origin etc were some of them which seek importance. one invention led to the other one. But they all remained devoid of proves until 1959, when earth sent its first lunar mission Luna-1(USSR) on January 2,(my birthday:) )which was a lunar flyby. Luna-2 which crash landed on the moon, provided magnificent evidences of the various characteristics of the surface of the Moon. the Luna-3 of USSR made available the first far side images of the moon. Luna-9 made the first lunar soft landing. Luna-10 became the first Flyby to return to earth.
Read more on Chandrayaan-1
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