The Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) on board Chandrayaan-1 has started taking pictures of the moon. On Tuesday evening, when the spacecraft was in the lunar transfer orbit, it photographed the crescent moon from a distance of some 2.5 lakh km.
The TMC took pictures of the earth when it was made operational on October 29. The pictures showed the northern and southern coasts of Australia.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) performed the fifth and final orbit-raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 early Tuesday morning, which put the spacecraft in the lunar transfer orbit. In the evening, the TMC, one of its 11 scientific instruments, took images of the moon.
M. Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayaan-1, said: “The pictures were taken when the spacecraft was more than 2.5 lakh km away from the moon. We did again the entire chain of tests of the 11 instruments, data handling, data storage, downlinking, radio frequency and so on.”
Chandrayaan-1 will reach the moon’s vicinity on November 8. According to ISRO’s present plans, the spacecraft will be lowered into its final orbit on November 15, in which it will go round the moon at an altitude of 100 km.