Moon Impact Probe (MIP)

M. Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayaan-1, explained how the MIP would land on the moon. After Chandrayaan-1 reaches the lunar orbit at an altitude of 100 km, ISRO will give commands to it to re-orient and eject the MIP, which has a motor on board.

“The motor will fire for two seconds to reduce the MIP’s velocity to 75 metres a second,” Mr. Annadurai said.

As the MIP descends to the moon’s surface, its video-camera will take pictures of the lunar surface. These pictures will help ISRO to decide where to land Chandrayaan-2’s rover.
The MIP’s altimeter will measure its altitude from the moon every second of its journey towards the moon.
A third instrument, a mass spectrometer, will sense the moon’s atmospheric constituents as it keeps falling and crashes on the moon.
All this data will be sent to Chandrayaan-1 till the MIP crashes on the moon. Chandrayaan-1, in turn, would beam the data to the earth, Mr. Annadurai said.