X-ray experiments on the Chandrayaan missions – a personal account

The Chandrayaan-1 mission was India's first dedicated scientific mission to study the Moon. It catapulted ISRO into the elite club of the select few space agencies capable of putting a satellite into the lunar orbit. It also generated enormous interest in not only the scientific community but also among the common public. The Chandrayaan-2 mission was the second and much more ambitious Indian mission to the Moon involving an orbiter, a lander, and a rover. It generated even greater excitement and interest in India as well as the worldwide scientific community. The orbiter is advancing its endeavour highly successfully and is providing exciting scientific observations. I have been fortunate to get the opportunity to be involved in the Indian lunar program from the very beginning. In this talk, I will share some of my experiences of working with the Chandrayaan program. Considering my direct involvement, I will limit the discussions to the X-ray experiments on both Chandrayaan missions, wherein I will try to bring out the uniqueness of the various aspects of these experiments. Finally, I will also provide some glimpses of the fascinating scientific results from our ongoing experiment onboard the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter that is operating successfully and is expected to continue the observations for the next few years.