Chandrayaan mission on target

CHENNAI: Nine out of 11 scientific instruments on board Chandrayaan-1 have been switched on, and the data that have been radioed in by them are being analysed.

According to M. Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayaan-1, the data include three-dimensional pictures of the Moon’s surface taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera, an instrument built by ISRO’s Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad.

The TMC has fore, nadir and aft cameras. Of the nine instruments that have been activated, the Moon Impact Probe, painted in the colours of the Indian flag, landed on the Moon on November 14.

The instruments that remain to be activated are the High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX) and the Sub keV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA). HEX, built by the Physical Research Laboratory, Bangalore and the ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, will study the Moon’s polar regions for deposits of water ice and prospect areas for high uranium and thorium concentration.

SARA will investigate the surface composition, how its surface reacts to the solar wind and how materials are altered in space. SARA has been jointly built by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics and the Space Physics Laboratory of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.

HEX and SARA, both high voltage instruments, will be switched on in the first week of December. “These are high voltage systems. You have to wait for some time in orbit before they are switched on,” Mr. Annadurai said.

When the ISRO performed a series of manoeuvres by firing Chandrayaan-1’s onboard engine to take the spacecraft to the Moon and then lower it into the final lunar orbit at an altitude of 100 km above it, the two systems could have been exposed to gases.

These gases should be “evacuated’ before the two instruments were activated, he said. The calibration of instruments was under way. Teams dealing with the instruments were studying the data received. “The science data needs to be fully reviewed and analysed,” said Mr. Annadurai.

Chandrayaan mission throwing up challenges’

Thiruvananthapuram: As the Chandrayaan I satellite treads a circular path around the moon, the latter is throwing up challenges to ISRO scientists as they strive for a successful completion of the two-year mission.


ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair said here on Sunday that owing to the volatile nature of the moon, temperature inside the satellite had gone up by ten degrees. This could hamper sensitive instruments inside the satellite.


``We’re trying to artificially cool it now,’’ he said delivering the Regent Maharani Setu Lakshmi Bayi Memorial Lecture marking her 113th birth anniversary. ``It’s a risky mission,’’ he said, speaking on the theme `India’s Recent Space Achievements.’ If things go as planned, ISRO will be able to create the first lunar atlas with a picture resolution of below ten metres, he said. The ISRO expects to take one-and-a-half years to complete the mapping with the Terrain Mapping Camera on board the satellite.


ISRO will soon launch the `Aditya’ satellite which will be positioned in the earth orbit and study the sun, and how solar phenomena affects the earth’s ionosphere and atmosphere, Madhavan Nair said. ISRO has started work on the Chandrayaan II Mission and the design was ready. The mission, which envisages a rover, is expected to lift off in 2012.


On a manned mission by India to the moon, Madhavan Nair said India can maintain its position among spacefaring nations if the ISRO can put a man on the moon by 2020. ``Only two nations - China and the US - have plans for a manned mission to the moon. They plan to do it by 2020. If India too can do it by then, we can maintain our position,’’ he said.


Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma, head of the Travancore Royal Family, presented Madhavan Nair with a Travancore sovereign.


ISRO scientists who were the architects of the Chandrayaan Mission K. Radhakrishnan, M.K.G. Nair, P.S. Veeraraghavan, S. Ramakrishnan, V. Adimurthy, George Koshy and C. Venugopal were honoured on the occasion.


Law Minister M.Vijayakumar inaugurated the function which was organised by the Thiruvananthapuram Kshatriya Kshema Sabha.

Chandrayaan's temperature rises, ISRO worried

New Delhi: India's moon mission Chandrayaan-1 is facing the heat, literally. A month after its launch, an unexplained rise in temperature is causing concern for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).


ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair says Chandrayaan-1 is now hotter by 10 degree Celsius which is hot enough to affect its instruments.


Volcanoes have erupted on the moon in the past. And temperatures on the surface often reach 100 degree Celsius.


While it isn't clear yet what's triggered the rise in temperature, scientists say a thermal blanket around the satellite could be used to keep temperatures down.


Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar mission, was launched on October 22 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota by PSLV-C11.


The Moon Impact Probe (MIP), with the Indian Tricolour pasted on its outer surface, was ejected on November 14 from Chandrayaan-1 and landed on the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan working normally: ISRO

BANGALORE: India's unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan the unmanned lunar spacecraft is functioning normally even though there has been a rise in temperature in the moon's atmosphere, an ISRO official said on Wedneday.

“It is a usual phenomena because it is summer on the moon. There is nothing to worry. It will be normal by December,” said Mr Satish, ISRP spokesperson. He said the craft's nine payloads, which have been switched on, are working fine and sending back dat a.

In view of the rise in temperature, ISRO will not work on all the payloads at a given time to ensure that they are not affected by the heat, he said. “Two of the high voltage payloads SARA and Hex will be switched on shortly. These payloads are sensitive equipment and need more voltage. By the first week of December, the atmosphere will become benign on the moon,” he said

Thiruvananthapuram: As the Chandrayaan I satellite treads a circular path around the moon, the latter is throwing up challenges to ISRO scientists as they strive for a successful completion of the two-year mission.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Assembly congratulated ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair and his colleagues for the successful launch of the nation's moon mission Chandrayaan-I. In a special reference at the Zero hour on the opening day of the Assembly's winter session, Speaker K Radhakrishnan said it was a proud moment for the entire nation when India's space agency successfully launched its maiden moon mission. "The achievement is certain to inspire the Indian scientific community to aim and reach greater heights," he said. Sharing the Speaker's sentiments, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said the state Culture Department was making arrangements for a grand reception for the Chandrayaan team. Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy said the success of Chandrayaan-I was a great national achievement. Kerala could especially be proud of it as the scientists from the state had played a prominent role in the mission, he said.

Chandrayaan mission throwing up challenges’

Thiruvananthapuram: As the Chandrayaan I satellite treads a circular path around the moon, the latter is throwing up challenges to ISRO scientists as they strive for a successful completion of the two-year mission.  ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair said here on Sunday that owing to the volatile nature of the moon, temperature inside the satellite had gone up by ten degrees. This could hamper sensitive instruments inside the satellite.  ``We're trying to artificially cool it now,'' he said delivering the Regent Maharani Setu Lakshmi Bayi Memorial Lecture marking her 113th birth anniversary. ``It's a risky mission,'' he said, speaking on the theme `India's Recent Space Achievements.'  If things go as planned, ISRO will be able to create the first lunar atlas with a picture resolution of below ten metres, he said.  The ISRO expects to take one-and-a-half years to complete the mapping with the Terrain Mapping Camera on board the satellite.  ISRO will soon launch the `Aditya' satellite which will be positioned in the earth orbit and study the sun, and how solar phenomena affects the earth's ionosphere and atmosphere, Madhavan Nair said. ISRO has started work on the Chandrayaan II Mission and the design was ready. The mission, which envisages a rover, is expected to lift off in 2012.  On a manned mission by India to the moon, Madhavan Nair said India can maintain its position among spacefaring nations if the ISRO can put a man on the moon by 2020. ``Only two nations - China and the US - have plans for a manned mission to the moon.  They plan to do it by 2020. If India too can do it by then, we can maintain our position,'' he said.  Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma, head of the Travancore Royal Family, presented Madhavan Nair with a Travancore sovereign.  ISRO scientists who were the architects of the Chandrayaan Mission K. Radhakrishnan, M.K.G. Nair, P.S. Veeraraghavan, S. Ramakrishnan, V. Adimurthy, George Koshy and C. Venugopal were honoured on the occasion.  Law Minister M.Vijayakumar inaugurated the function which was organised by the Thiruvananthapuram Kshatriya Kshema Sabha.

Chandrayaan-1 Starts Observations Of The Moon

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2008) — The Indian Space Research Organisation's lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 released a probe that impacted close to the lunar south pole on 14 November. Following this, the instruments on the spacecraft are being switched on to get the science observations started. The Moon Impact Probe was dropped close to Shackleton crater, a place close to the south pole, where ice may exist in areas that are never illuminated by the Sun. It carried three instruments: a video imaging system, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer. The imaging system took pictures of the Moon as it approached the surface, the radar was used to determine the altitude, and the mass spectrometer was used to study the thin lunar atmosphere.  The probe was released from the spacecraft at 15:36 CET (20:06 Indian Standard Time), on 14 November and took 25 minutes to reach the surface. As it descended, the probe transmitted pictures to the orbiter that were later downloaded to Earth. The Terrain Mapping Camera, TMC, and the Radiation Dose Monitor, RADOM, were functional by that time on the orbiter. After the impact of the probe, the remaining orbiter instruments were switched on consecutively for their commissioning activities. During commissioning all standard operating modes of an instrument are exercised and the data and housekeeping parameters are examined to verify that everything is working properly. The European near-infrared spectrometer SIR-2 was commissioned successfully on 19 November. The instrument was switched on and sent back housekeeping data indicating normal functionality. Science observations were started successfully on 20 November. The Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer, C1XS, was first activated on 23 November, and its commissioning is in progress. The Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyser, SARA will be commissioned from 7 to 10 December. The commissioning for this instrument will take longer than usual because the instrument operates at a high-voltage, which will be increased in steps. Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to venture beyond Earth orbit, was launched on 22 October 2008. The mission is led by ISRO. ESA has coordinated and supported the provision of the three European instruments on board (C1XS, SARA, SIR-2), and assisted ISRO in areas such as flight dynamics and is supporting data archiving and processing. As a result of the collaboration, ESA and ISRO will share the data from their respective instruments. Other international partners in the mission include Bulgaria and the USA.

Chandrayaan-II cleared by govt, to be in orbit by 2011-12

COIMBATORE: Even as India's maiden lunar probe circles the moon, the Centre has
given its approval for Chandrayaan-II and it would be in orbit by 2012.

ISRO has started necessary research workfor the next mission for which the Centre has sanctioned necessary funds, Chandrayaan-I Project Director Mylswamy Annadurai told reporters. The second mission would be a fully indigenous one, he said.
Chandrayan-I is the best thing to happen to Indian space research and is designed to study the water availability and fertile standards of moon, he said.
The moon mission has proved that India is on par with any other nation which ventured to the earth's satellite, he said.
Stating that the pictures being received from moon were giving very valuable inputs, he said steps are being made to get continuous pictures by making some technical corrections.
Earlier, the Scientist was felicitated by the public at different places in Coimbatore district for the successful launch of the country's moon mission.
Accepting the felicitations, Annadurai exhorted the students to shelve their foreign dreams as opportunities were available within India.
The days of foreign students coming to India in pursuit of research works and higher studies were not far away, he said.

Chandrayaan experience will go a long way: Astronaut Rakesh Sharma

MUMBAI: India’s first and only astronaut Rakesh Sharma believes the experience Astronaut
gained by the Moon Impact Probes crashlanding on the lunar Astronaut Rakesh Sharmasurface will go a long way in planning India’s manned mission to the moon.

Speaking to TOI, Sharma, who was a part of the Indo-Soviet space mission in April 1984, said: “I am sure this will go into the experience base for planning a manned moon mission as it will help to map the lunar surface.” Sharma was also a part of the group of eminent people that gave the green light to the Chandrayaan mission.
India has not totally ruled out the possibility of embarking on a manned lunar mission in 2020. Space experts said India’s plan needs to be viewed in the context of Asian countries, like China and Japan, which are working on manned missions. Besides, a manned flight to the low earth orbit (2,000 km above the earth) planned for 2014 is awaiting the Centre’s nod.
Sharma said the success of the MIP will depend on the amount of the scientific data it is able to transmit. Told that the MIP had initially created some rumbles of dissent in the science fraternity, the former astronaut said: “Any add-on is always worth it. I would say that the inclusion of the probe is a good forerunner to Chandrayaan-II.”
The second Indian moon mission, which will do a soft landing on the moon is slated for launch with a Russian-built lander and rover from Sriharikota between 2010 and 2012. It is estimated to cost about Rs 425 crore and will be launched from the three-stage GSLV.

Chandrayaan team over the moon

“The Chandrayaan-1 team is over the moon,” exulted M. Annadurai, Project Director, when the Moon Impact Probe of the spacecraft crashed on the lunar surface at 8.31 p.m. IST. The MIP ejected at 8.06 p.m.
When the 35-kg box-like scientific instrument crashed on the Moon on Friday night, India became the fourth country in the world to have put a probe on lunar soil. The other countries/agency which had done it earlier were Russia, the United States, Japan and the European Space Agency.
The MIP was a technological forerunner to Chandrayaan-2, which would soft-land a rover on the Moon in 2012-13. The three objectives were: to demonstrate India’s capability to impact an instrument at a pre-planned time and desired location on the Moon; to test the critical technologies required for soft-landing a rover on the Moon; and scientific exploration of the Moon at close range.
The MIP crashed at a place called the Shackleton crater in the south polar region of the Moon. The crater also is a possible site for future human missions to the Moon.
Riding piggyback on Chandrayaan-1, the MIP had three instruments. They were a video camera, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer. Commands went from the Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore to fire a spin-up motor on board the MIP for two seconds and separate it from the mother-spacecraft.
“After it is separated, the MIP starts spinning like a top. The aim behind spinning it like a top is to give directional stability to the MIP just like a top is stable when it is spinning,” explained B.R. Guruprasad, Public Relations Officer, ISRO. Then, the MIP’s retro-rockets were fired to reduce the speed of its descent. When the velocity was reduced, it followed a curved path towards the surface of the Moon, Mr. Guruprasad said. The MIP descended for about 25 minutes from its separation till it impacted on the Moon.
As the MIP was descending, its video-camera took pictures of the lunar surface. They would be useful in selecting a possible site for soft-landing Chandrayaan-2’s rover. Its altimeter measured the MIP’s altitude during every second of its descent. The mass spectrometer analysed the constituents of the Moon’s extremely thin atmosphere.
The Shackleton crater has an undulating terrain with hills and valleys. Since the valleys are in the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions, it could harbour water ice. The dust kicked up when the MIP crashed would be analysed to check whether it contained water ice. The probe died within a few seconds of its crash.

Chandrayaan-1: imaging moon in 64 colours

If the Terrain Mapping Camera (TRC) can collect topographical data that will help compile a 3D lunar atlas with a 5 metre resolution, the Hyper-Spectral Imager (HySI) will enable the mineralogical mapping of the moon’s surface.
HySI, along with other instruments, will also help in understanding the composition of the moon’s interior.
Developed by the Ahmedabad based Space Applications Centre (the same Centre that developed the terrain mapping camera), the HySI will operate in the visible and near-infrared bands.
As a result, the HySI will be able to collect crucial colour information of the moon’s surface features.
The colour information is collected from 421 nanometre to 964 nanometre wavelength, with a spectral resolution better than 15 nanometres.

Chandrayaan-1 goes around the moon in a north-south polar orbit. It will collect the sun’s light reflected from the moon’s surface in an area detector (frames). This is much the same as any ordinary camera that captures an image in the form of frames.
One frame will correspond to 40 km in the north-south direction and 20 km in the east-west direction.
The 20 km coverage is called the swath. The rectangular frame has 512 pixels arranged in a north-south direction and 256 pixels in the east-west.
Arrays of 512 pixels in a north-south direction can be considered as rows and the arrays of 256 pixels arranged in an east-west direction can be considered as columns.
Each pixel covers 80 metres (hence 256 pixels x 80 metres gives the 20 km swath in the east-west direction). The area covered in the north-south direction depends on for how long the HySI camera captures data. Hence more the duration, more the area covered.The reflected light falling on HySI is split into spectral bands of different wavelengths by a wedge filter. The filter is placed in such a manner that the spectral separation happens in a north-south direction.
Hence each of the 512 pixels arranged in the north-south direction will represent continuously differing spectral wavelengths.
“One end of the array will have 421 nanometre and the other end will have 964 nanometre wavelength,” said Dr. Kiran Kumar A.S., Deputy Director, Sensor Development Area, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad.
The pixels arranged in a particular row (256 pixels) in the east-west direction will collect information in the same spectral wavelength.
So in one instant the HySI camera picks up data in different wavelengths. Ideally, data collected by all the 512 rows will help in understanding the mineralogical composition better.

But transmitting the voluminous data will be very challenging. “Onboard processing is done and only 64 spectral bands are transmitted,” said Dr. Kumar.
The data processing is done by combining the data from 8 continuous rows that will cover the same region on the moon at slightly different wavelengths into one data.
This kind of data compression allows the 512 rows of spectral wavelengths to be sent as 64 spectral bands.
“The data compression will result in some data loss,” Dr. Kumar remarked, “but we need to compromise a little as we have to take into account data storage and transfer,” Dr. Kumar said.

Much like the Terrain Mapping Camera, The Hyper-Spectral Imager will be operational only for 20 minutes per orbit. This is because only the well illuminated regions of the moon near the equator will be imaged at any given point of time.
“So the imaging period will be restricted to 60 days in six months. We will have two slots of 60 days each in a year,” he said.

The rate at which the moon will be imaged will be 1.4 km per second. Since the swath (east-west coverage) is fixed at 20 km, 100 seconds of continuous operation will cover an area of 140 km length and 20 km width.
In 20 minutes of operation per orbit, the area of moon covered will be 1,680 km in length and 20 km in width. The higher latitudes, which will not be well lit by the sun, will be covered be increasing the exposure time of the camera.
“We will be able to cover the entire moon in two years’ time,” Dr. Kumar said.
But why choose a wedge filter instead of a prism to split the incoming light into different spectral wavelengths? “We can get a compact system that weighs less only when a wedge filter is used. The complexity and weight increase when we use a prism,” he explained.

Chandrayaan-2 - Ambani institute working on projects

AHMEDABAD: With Chandrayaan-1 already having entered the lunar orbit, get ready for Chandrayan-2. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning its second Moon Mission, Chandrayaan-2, in 2011 in a joint venture with Russia. Chandrayaan-2 will consist of a spacecraft and a landing platform with a moon rover. And, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT) is abuzz with experiments for this second unmanned mission to the Moon. Unlike Chandrayaan-1 which will orbit the Moon at an altitude of 100 km mapping topography and the mineralogical content of the lunar soil, Chandrayaan-2 mission involves a lunar orbiting spacecraft, a lander and a rover on the Moon's surface. The rover will move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, conduct a chemical analysis and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above. DAIICT is hard at work, developing a small device weighing around 200 gm based on sensor technology. This device will work on wireless network system to explore the presence of water on Moon's polar regions through close quarters. Prabhat Ranjan, faculty at DAIICT, says, "We have submitted our proposal to PRL. We are planning to land 30 to 40 small devices which will collect moon samples from the polar regions and pass on the data to cluster heads and then die out. It is still in a very nascent stage." "The cluster heads will sustain for a longer period and will transmit the collected data to the lunar rover or lander on the Moon surface," Ranjan adds. On the number of scientific payloads on Chandrayaan-2, J N Goswami, director, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) and mission director, Chandrayaan-1 says, "We have yet not finalized the scientific experiments for Chandrayaan-2. We have invited proposal from various institutes and organizations, but everything is still at a conceptual level." "The response for submitting proposals has been great so far. The final experiments for the mission will only be decided through detailed scientific discussions," Goswami adds.

Laser instrument on board Chandrayaan-1 activated

CHENNAI: The Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI), one of the 11 scientific instruments on board Chandrayaan-1, was activated on Sunday, when the spacecraft was passing over the western part of the Moon’s visible atmosphere.
A press release from the Indian Space Research Organisation said the LLRI was a radar that would generate information on the height of hills, mountains, and depth of craters and valleys of the Moon.
It sent high-energy lasers towards a strip of the moon’s surface and they would be reflected to the spacecraft. With this, the instrument can measure the height or depth of the Moon’s hills or craters.
An ISRO official said if the laser returned late, it signified the presence of a crater or a valley. If it came back early, it meant there was a mountain or a hill.

The LLRI would be kept switched on and take 10 measurements per second on both day and night sides of the Moon, the press release said. It would provide topographical details of the Moon’s polar and equatorial regions.
Analysis of the data from the LLRI would help in understanding the internal structure of the Moon and the mystery behind its origin. The LLRI was built by the ISRO’s Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS) in Bangalore.

Meanwhile, the Terrain Mapping Camera, another instrument built by India, has been taking breathtaking pictures of the lunar surface.
On November 15, the TMC took pictures of the polar region, which showed many large and small craters including the rim of the 117 km-wide Moretus crater. On November 13, it took pictures of the equatorial region, showing craters and also part of the Torricelli crater.
Chandrayaan-1’s Moon Impact Probe (MIP), which crash-landed on the Shackleton crater on November 14, has also beamed several pictures of the lunar surface. The Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM), an instrument from Bulgaria to investigate the moon’s radiation environment, has been switched on.
The pictures and scientific data sent by Chandrayaan-1 from its orbit 100 km above the moon are being received by the antennas with 32 metre and 18 metre diameter at the Indian Deep Space Network at Byalalu village, near Bangalore.
The spacecraft operations are being done from the Spacecraft Control Centre of the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network at Bangalore.

India to take second moon shot by 2012, eyes Mars

Buoyed by the success of its maiden lunar mission, India on Thursday said it will send a second unmanned spacecraft to the moon by 2012.
The announcement came less than a week after Chandrayaan-1, India's first unmanned spacecraft, entered lunar orbit for the start of a two-year mission.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the second spacecraft would also place a probe on the moon's surface.

"Chandrayaan-II will be launched by 2012," ISRO chairman Madavan Nair told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar in the southern Indian city of Chennai.
"We will have a lander that will drop a small robot on the moon, which will pick samples, analyse data and send the data back," the Press Trust of India quoted Nair as saying.
He said Chandrayaan-1 will on Friday drop a probe, painted in India's national colours, on the moon.
"Already 95 per cent of the mission has been completed. The total success of the mission would be known only after the remaining work is completed," he said.
During its mission, Chandrayaan-1 will provide a detailed map of the mineral, chemical and topographical characteristics of the moon's surface.
India hopes the lunar missions will boost its space programme into the same league as regional powerhouses Japan and China.
"We cannot be lagging behind in terms of our capability to access space. China, the US and Japan are going ahead with huge plans for space," the ISRO chairman said.
Nair also dismissed criticism the 80-million dollar Chandrayaan-1 project was beyond ISRO's budget and said the agency would use the infrastructure created for the lunar mission for more ambitious programmes.
"Most of the expenses have gone to create infrastructural facilities, which will be used for our plans to send satellites to Mars and Venus," Nair said, adding the organisation would also launch a satellite to solar emissions.

Costs for Chandrayaan: ISRO chief rejects criticism

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G Madhavan Nair on Thursday sought to silence critics of the Chandrayaan-1 over its "exorbitant" costs, saying that only a miniscule portion of the Indian space programme's budget had been allotted for the moon mission.

"Only three per cent of total budget of ISRO for three years has been spent on the mission. Most of the expenses have gone to create infrastructural facilities, which will be used for our plans to send satellites to Mars and Venus. Hence the question of spending an exorbitant amount does not arise," he said. He was inaugurating an international seminar on Emerging Scenarios in Space Technology and applications here.
Dedicating the successful Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Indian scientific community, he said, "It is a turning point in the country's space programme and has enthused young scientists."

Chandrayaan-1 Successfully Reaches its Operational Lunar Orbit

Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has successfully reached its intended operational orbit at a height of about 100 km from the lunar surface. This followed a series of three orbit reduction manoeuvres conducted during the past three days by repeatedly firing the spacecraft's 440 Newton Liquid Engine. As part of these manoeuvres, the engine was fired for a cumulative duration of about sixteen minutes. As a result of these manoeuvres, the farthest point of Chandrayaan-1's orbit (aposelene) from the moon's surface was first reduced from 7,502 km to 255 km and finally to 100 km while the nearest point (periselene) was reduced from 200 km to 182 km and finally to 100 km.
With this, the carefully planned complex sequence of operations to carry Chandrayaan-1 from its initial Earth orbit to its intended operational lunar orbit with the use of its liquid engine has been successfully completed. During these operations, Chandrayaan-1's liquid engine built by Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Thiruvananthapuram, has been fired a total of ten times successfully. In its present operational orbit, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft takes about two hours to go round the moon once.
From this operational circular orbit of about 100 km height passing over the polar regions of the moon, it is intended to conduct chemical, mineralogical and photo geological mapping of the moon with Chandrayaan-1's 11 scientific instruments (payloads). Two of those 11 payloads – Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM) – have already been successfully switched ON. TMC has successfully taken the pictures of Earth and moon.
The next major event of Chandrayaan-1 mission planned in the coming days is the release of Moon Impact Probe (MIP) from the spacecraft and its eventual hitting of the moon's surface. It may be recalled that after its successful launch by PSLV-C11 on October 22 into an initial Earth orbit, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft proceeded towards moon and successfully entered into an elliptical orbit around that celestial body on November 8, 2008. Since its launch, the spacecraft's health and orbit have been continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) with critical support from antennas of Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu.

Shourya test- fired

India on Wednesday successfully test- fired a new surface- to- surface missile called “ Shourya” from the Integrated Test Range ( ITR) at Balasore in Orissa.
The two- stage missile took off from a silo at 11.25 a. m. and reached its targeted site 600 km away in the Bay of Bengal. Shourya can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads.
It is the land version of the underwater- launched missile called K- 15 ( Sagarika), which was fired in February 2008 from an underwater pontoon.
Shourya is a product of the Defence Research and Development Organisation ( DRDO) and its Programme Director is A. K. Chakrabarti. M. Natarajan, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, was at Balasore to watch the launch.W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller ( R and D), DRDO, said, “ Today’s flight- test of Shourya is a significant milestone in building capability for the nation in the field of missiles both for strategic and tactical applications.” Just as the K- 15 ( Sagarika) missile could rise from the water and knife into the air, Shourya could lift off from a silo on the ground and pierce the sky. “ Since the missile is fired from underground, it cannot be detected by conventional satellite imaging,” Dr. Selvamurthy said. As Shourya was canisterised it was easy to transport, maintain and operate. Both its stages were powered by solid propellants. The Chief Controller called Shourya “ a totally new missile.”
While the K- 15 missile has an underwater booster and an air booster, Shourya has a booster underground and an air booster.
Shourya could get through the air defence of an adversary country because it was highly manoeuvrable, Dr. Selvamurthy said.
Defence Minister A. K. Antony has congratulated the DRDO on the successful testfiring of the Shourya.

Chandrayaan a step away from lunar orbital home

India carried out the penultimate orbit-lowering manoeuvre of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on Tuesday, positioning it on the doorstep of what will be its path around the moon for two years. The craft's liquid motor was fired for about 30 seconds at 6.30 pm to position it in an orbit where it is 255 km from the moon at its farthest and 101 km at its nearest, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) spokesperson S Satish said. Isro has carried out three orbit-lowering moves since the spacecraft entered the lunar orbit on Saturday. The spacecraft, which was launched on October 22, was propelled on its 4,00,000-km voyage to the moon in a number of stages, with its orbit being raised progressively towards the moon by activating its liquid motor. Eventually, it will be placed in a circular orbit 100 km above the lunar surface for the duration of its two-year mission Once positioned in the intended orbit, a moon impact probe, one of the 11 instruments carried by Chandrayaan-1, will be dropped on to the lunar surface in an experiment to gather knowledge for future soft landing missions. The probe is one of five Indian scientific payloads that Chandrayaan-1 is carrying.

Chandrayaan-1 Now In Lunar Orbit

Chandrayaan-1, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) lunar orbiter, was captured into orbit around the Moon on 8 November. One day later, the spacecraft performed a manoeuvre that lowered the closest point of its orbit down to 200 km from the Moon.

The spacecraft’s liquid-fuel propelled engine was fired at 12:21 CET (16:51 Indian Standard Time) when it was at a distance of about 500 km from the Moon. This reduced the spacecraft’s velocity, enabling the Moon’s gravitational field to capture Chandrayaan-1 into lunar orbit. In this configuration, the orbit’s point closest to the lunar surface was at 504 km and the spacecraft circled the Moon in 11 hours.
This lunar orbit insertion manoeuvre was executed from the Chandrayaan-1 Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network at Bangalore. The performance of all the systems on board Chandrayaan-1 was registered as normal.
Yesterday, at 15:33 CET (20:03 Indian Standard Time), the spacecraft’s engine was fired for about 57 seconds, reducing the orbit’s point closest to the lunar surface to 200 km while the farthest point remained unchanged at 7502 km. In this elliptical orbit, Chandrayaan-1 takes about ten and a half hours to circle the Moon once.
Over the next few days, the height of the spacecraft’s orbit around the Moon will be carefully reduced in steps to achieve a final 100-km polar lunar orbit. The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) will then be released to hit the lunar surface, after which the other instruments on board will be turned on.
Chandrayaan-1 was launched on 22 October by from India’s spaceport at Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. The launcher placed the spacecraft in an elliptical orbit around Earth.
In the past two weeks, the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC), one of the eleven scientific instruments of the spacecraft, was successfully operated twice to take pictures.

Chandrayaan-1: Succesful manoeuvreing

ISRO scientists yesterday (November 9) successfully conducted the first orbit lowering manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1, India's first unmanned spacecraft mission to the Moon, achieving the desired orbit.
"The orbit-lowering of Chandrayaan-1 was successfully carried out at 8.03 PM today", ISRO spokesperson S Satish said yesterday.
"The liquid engine on board the spacecraft was fired for a duration of 57 seconds and the desired orbit of 7500 km X 200 km has been achieved", Satish said. "Further manoeuvres are planned in the coming days," he said.
Chandrayaan-1 entered the lunar orbit on November 8, breaking away from the Earth's gravitational field.
The performance of all the systems onboard Chandrayaan-1 is normal.
The height of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft's orbit around the moon will be carefully reduced in steps to achieve a final polar orbit of about 100 km height from the moon's surface by November 15.
Following this, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) of the spacecraft will be released to hit the lunar surface. Later, the other scientific instruments will be turned on sequentially, leading to the normal phase of the mission.

Chandrayaan orbital height reduced

CHENNAI: After successfully accomplishing the most crucial and tricky manoeuvre of safely inserting Chandrayaan-1 into the lunar orbit on Saturday, the Indian Space Research Organisation on Sunday executed the first manoeuvre of reducing the orbital height of the spacecraft around the moon. While on Saturday, Chandrayaan-1 reached the lunar orbit with an aposelene (farthest point from the moon) of 7,502 km and a periselene (nearest point from the moon) of 504 km, the periselene was reduced to 200 km on Sunday. The aposelene continues at 7,500 km. The periselene was reduced by giving commands to the engine on board Chandrayaan-1 to fire for about a minute from 8.03 p.m.

Three more manoeuvres of reducing both the aposelene and periselene will be done in the coming days. This includes the manoeuvre of putting Chandrayaan-1 in the final circular orbit of 100 km above the moon on November 15. After this is done, ISRO will command the spacecraft to eject its Moon Impact Probe on the same day.
The Moon Impact Probe, with the Indian flag painted on its sides, will crash-land on the moon.
Then the remaining 10 scientific instruments will be switched on, one after another.
The Terrain Mapping Camera, an Indian scientific instrument, has already been switched on. It has taken clear pictures of the earth and the moon

Indian moon mission - Nov 8 . . . . .

Today is probably the do or die day for India's moon mission, the lunar craft is fast approaching the moon and if any of the complex operations slated for today fail, it could have disastrous consequences.
It had a flawless launch on October 22, 2008. The arduous 17-day journey has been a bumpy one but the Indian space agency says all systems on board the unnamed satellite are working well and if all goes well in a very delicate operation fraught with many dangers, the Chandrayaan should rendezvous with the moon and then remain in the moon orbit for the next two years. When there it will be mapping the lunar resources like never before. Among its first tasks placing India's tricolor on the moons surface.
This fire and smoke heralded India's ascendancy to a exclusive group of moon faring nations. India's lunar craft is now dashing in space to keep its date with the moon. By all accounts, the country's moon dreams have been a blazing success so far.
Hectic preparations are ongoing in the Mission Control Center in Bangalore to ensure that nothing goes wrong since the lunar craft is at its farthest point a whopping 400,000 kilometers from Earth and talking to it is a big challenge since all signals are very faint.
"Chandrayaan-1 is performing well and it is about 3.8 lakh kilometers away from Earth and in a series of complex maneuvers it will be putting the satellite in the moon orbit, it is a tricky operation, but ISRO scientists are confident of achieving the task," said Dr S Satish, Director, ISRO, Bangalore.
A tricky operation indeed but how will it be done

Moon images beamed by Chandrayaan-1

India’s rendezvous with the moon is heading in the right direction.
Following the final orbit raising manoeuvre which has put the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft closer to the moon, the first black and white images of the moon have been beamed by the spacecraft.
The images which can be seen only on the television screens have been transmitted to the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu.
ISRO officials said that the beaming of the images was satisfactory and that it was sent when the spacecraft was propelled for the fifth and final orbit raising manoeuvre.
The Chandrayaan-1 has entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory with an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of about 380,000 km. Chandrayaan- 1 will approach the moon on November 8 and the spacecraft’s liquid engine will be fired again to insert the spacecraft into lunar orbit.
Earlier this month, the Chandrayaan-1’s camera was tested as the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) onboard Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft beamed two images capturing the Australia’s Northern and Southern coast.
The Chandrayaan-1 which was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on October 22 has 11 payloads. Apart from the TMC, the other four Indian payloads of Chandrayaan-1 are the Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI), Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI), High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX) and the Moon Impact Probe (MIP). The other six payloads are from abroad.

Chandrayaan to enter tricky lunar orbit today

MUMBAI: Saturday evening would mark the D-day for India's prestigious Rs 386-crore
moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, when the tricky lunar orbit insertion (LOI) takes place — expectedly between 5 pm and 6 pm. The success of the moon mission, which lifted off on October 22, depends on this.
According to space experts, LOI is not without danger because it means traversing through an area in which the gravitational forces of the earth and moon nearly cancel each other out. Consequently, even a small deviation could send the spacecraft into a crash course towards the moon or earth — or on a path leading into deep space. Experts recall that about 30% of unmanned moon missions of US and the former Soviet Union failed during an LOI.
On the eve of Chandrayaan's LOI, an Isro official said: "Despite the challenging manouevre on Saturday, the professionalism of scientists and engineers makes us approach the task with optimism, although I admit to a feeling of nervous apprehension. It will be a test for everyone, including the deep space network at Byalalu and the electronic brain of the Chandrayaan spacecraft," he said.
He said the main challenge before LOI was targetting the spacecraft accurately to pass near the moon on Saturday at a "safe" distance of a few hundred kilometres. The distance between the earth and the moon is 3,86,000 km. "At that distance, it will be a big challenge for us to track the spacecraft, because the moon itself will be moving around the earth at the speed of 3,600 km per hour," he said.

Chandrayaan manoeuvre today

A crucial manoeuvre, to be performed on Saturday, on Chandrayaan-1 will inject it into an orbit around the moon from its current highly elliptical orbit around the earth.
On November 4, the last of the earth-bound manoeuvres was carried out, which put the satellite into an orbit with an apogee (the farthest point in the orbit from the earth) of 3,84,000 km and a perigee (the nearest point) at 1,019 km. With this apogee, the satellite actually encircles the moon as well. However, this earth-bound orbit is actually at about an inclination of 18 degrees to the earth’s Equator. Since the final designated lunar orbit is a circumpolar one, this orbit has also to turn around by almost 90 degrees.
As the satellite cruises along its present trajectory, the moon’s gravity will begin to dominate when this orbit will be about 60,000 km from the moon, which is expected to happen around midnight on Friday. Under the gravitational pull, the satellite will also begin to gain velocity. The orbit plane will also begin to gradually tilt away from its present near-equatorial one.
To enable the satellite to be completely captured by the moon, and thereby make the earth’s gravity irrelevant, the satellite would have to be slowed down. And this important operation will be performed when it is about 500 km from the moon, above the lunar north-pole. This is expected to occur around 1730 hrs on Saturday. At this point, the satellite’s orientation will actually be earth-facing. Also, significantly, the orbit will no longer be a closed elliptic one; it becomes an open hyperbolic one. So, if velocity reduction is not achieved at the designated time, the satellite will escape from moon’s gravity and be irretrievably lost in space. Thus, this operation is extremely crucial.
To enable Chandrayaan-1 to be captured by the moon, its orientation will be turned around by 180 degrees with the help of on-board reaction wheels. After this , retro-rockets will be fired for about 800 seconds.
The firing will give momentum to the satellite in the direction opposite to its orbit direction and slow it down. This will bring down its velocity from about 2 km/s to about 1.5 km/s.
It will then be under the total influence of the moon and its trajectory under its gravitational pull at this point will be such that the slowly tilting orbit would have actually swung by nearly 90 degrees southwards to become a circumpolar one. In this Lunar Orbit of Injection, the satellite’s closest point from the moon (perilune) is 500 km and the farthest point (apolune) is about 7,500 km. The period of revolution around the moon will be about 10 hours.
The preparation for the manoeuvre is expected to begin around noon on Saturday when satellite health checks will be performed. A little before the satellite approaches the lunar north-pole, its orientation will be turned around to ensure that its new orientation is exactly opposite to its velocity vector. The firing of the retro-rockets is expected between 1730 hrs and 1800 hrs. Within an hour, one will know if the manoeuvre has been successful.
Once completed, the orientation will be maintained such that the solar panel continuously faces the sun to generate maximum power. It will be similarly turned around every time a velocity reduction operation is to be performed. Four more velocity reduction operations are required to be carried out, twice at perilune and twice at apolune, to bring it into final pole-to-pole circular orbit of 100 km radius. The satellite will attain its final orbit on November 15.

Chandrayaan - orbiting moon on Saturday

Indian space scientists are hopeful that Chandrayaan-1 will Saturday start orbiting the moon.
"If everything goes right, by November 8, Chandrayaan-1 will start circling the moon," said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman Madhavan Nair in Gandhinagar on Tuesday.
The last orbit-raising manoeuvres to enter the lunar transfer trajectory were completed Tuesday by the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore, he said.
The ISRO will soon launch Bhuvan that will provide online maps based on the Geographical Information System (GIS) similar to that of Google Earth, said Nair, who was here to attend the inaugural 28th International Congress on Mapping and Space Technology-INCA-2008.
The 28th International Congress has been organised jointly by ISRO and the International Cartographic Association with participation of about 400 delegates from India, the US, Australia, Germany and other countries.

Chandrayaan- 1' success, : ISRO's new satellite RISAT

BANGALORE: After the success of Chandrayaan- 1, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) has developed a new satellite, Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) that can capture images through the clouds which will enable space-based applications in such scenarios as managing cyclones, floods besides agriculture-related activities.
RISAT will enable seeing through the clouds, unlike India’s current earth-observation satellites which work on visible and infrared bands, restricting their use only to cloud-free situations.
“During cyclones and floods, the entire sky is clouded. RISAT will help seeing through the cloud,” said ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair.
RISAT with its capability for day-night imaging, can operate in all-weather conditions and help in assessing agriculture during monsoon season by showing how much sowing and harvesting has to be done.

Chandrayaan 96 hours from moon's orbit - Oct 5 updates

At 4.56am on Tuesday, Chandrayaan spacecraft entered the main highway to the moon and began its 96-hour flight towards the lunar orbit. It was the fifth and final orbit raising manoeuvre before the spacecraft entered the orbit on Saturday.
A jubilant Chandrayaan project director Mylaswamy Annadurai told TOI from Bangalore the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about two-and-a-half minutes and Chandrayaan entered the moon highway with an apogee (farthest point to earth) being 3,80,000 km.
Annadurai recalled the final moments before the spacecraft entered the moon highway also known as lunar transfer trajectory. "I was at Isro's telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) at Bangalore since early morning and we were going step by step very carefully. As soon as we received a signal that Chandrayaan had successfully entered the main highway to the moon, there was a jubilation in the mission control room," he said. Istrac director S K Shivakumar told TOI, "Yes, we all had a sense of satisfaction, but let me tell you that there were no clapping and embracing because the lunar orbit insertion (LOI) was still left," Shivakumar said.
He said commands are flashed to the spacecraft in the form of a digital message. "The return key in a keyboard is hit and the message is processed by the computer and transmitted to the spacecraft. Let me assure you that the person who will be hitting this return key on Saturday for the LOI is under no pressure," he said.
Annadurai said the health of the spacecraft was being continuously monitored from the spacecraft control centre at Istrac with support from the Indian Deep Space Network antennas at Byalalu. "I am happy to say that the spacecraft is performing normally," Annadurai said.
Asked if the Chandrayaan team was nervous about the LOI on Saturday, he said the orbit raising manoeuvre on Tuesday was equally crucial. "I am hoping that the manoeuvre will go off smoothly on Saturday too," he said.
He said in all probability the LOI will occur between 5pm and 6pm on Saturday. Space scientists said this manoeuvre can be a hair-raising one because 30% of lunar missions of US and the former Soviet Union have failed because of some problems during LOI.

Chandrayaan-1 first Indian-built spacecraft to leave the earth’s gravity and head towards the moon.

Chandrayaan-1 on Tuesday became the first Indian-built spacecraft to leave the earth’s gravity and head towards the moon.
It accomplished this significant milestone in its journey when it entered the lunar transfer orbit with an apogee of 3,80,000 km after its on-board engine fired for two and a half minutes from 4.56 a.m. The spacecraft will cross the 3,80,000 km-mark, that is reach the vicinity of the moon, on November 8. The moon is 3,84,000 km from the earth. Chandrayaan-1 is India’s dedicated science mission to study it in detail.
M. Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayaan-1, said: “The spacecraft is in lunar transfer orbit. Everything is normal. We will do the lunar insertion manoeuvre of the spacecraft on November 8. We are working for the spacecraft to reach its final lunar orbit on November 15.”
On the mission, Mr. Annadurai said, “everything is proceeding as per plan. We will continue to monitor and track the spacecraft.”
En route to the moon, Chandrayaan-1 will take pictures of the lunar surface with the help of its scientific instrument called the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC). The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has already switched on the TMC, which has beamed down pictures of the earth.
Commands for the crucial manoeuvre of putting Chandrayaan-1 in the lunar transfer orbit were radioed from the Spacecraft Control Centre, the nerve-centre of the operations now, located at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bangalore. ISTRAC can control the two massive bowl-shaped antennas, with diameters of 32 metres and 18 metres, at Byalalu village, 40 km away. These antennas keep a tab on Chandrayaan-1’s journey to the moon.
S.K. Shivakumar, ISTRAC Director, said: “Chandrayaan-1 is on the way to the moon now. Its apogee will be 3,80,000 km. It is the first Indian-built spacecraft to leave the earth’s gravity. It has enough escape-velocity to leave the earth’s gravity.”
When the spacecraft approaches the moon on November 8, the Spacecraft Control Centre will beam commands for inserting Chandrayaan-1 into the lunar orbit and it will be attracted by the moon’s gravity. On November 15, it will be lowered into its final orbit when it will start circling the moon over its poles at an altitude of 100 km. The spacecraft was in good shape, Mr. Shivakumar said. The 32-metre and 18-metre antennas were “very much tracking” it.

Chandrayaan-1 update

Mapping magnetic anomalies.The Martian Chronicles on a Swedish instrument called SARA on board the ship: "SARA will also be able to study magnetic anomalies, presumably because the magnetic fields will change how the solar wind interacts with the surface."
"Magnetic anomaly" caught my attention because this is what begins the fuss in Arthur Clarke's famous novel "2001 A Space Odyssey". TMA it was called in the story - Tycho Magnetic Anomaly, because it was found in the Tycho region.What's the use of "Radioactive mapping"?Radioactive mapping is one of the things the mission will do. But what is it? And why do it?

The Martian Chronicles clarifies the purpose of the on board Bulgarian instrument that will do this job: "The whole goal is for this thing to get bombarded with radiation and see how much there is, what range of energies the particles have, and figure out how that dose might change for different locations on the moon. The Apollo astronauts were only out of Earth’s protective magnetic field for a few days, but for colonists spending months or years out there, it’s important to know how much radiation shielding they will need, and what type of radiation is the most dangerous."Detecting water ice.The Martian Chronicles on an on board Indian instrument called HEX: "a thick ice deposit would absorb x-rays that normally would be emitted to space, so by measuring changes in x-ray emission, HEX might be able to detect water ice."Chandrayaan-1 Project Director answers some questions on ship's trajectory.Technical details of trajectory to moon of Chandrayaan-1 spaceshipVia R Prasad's article titled "How Chandrayaan-1 is raised to higher orbits" in The Hindu newspaper of Madras. Article is based on correspondent's interaction with "M. Annadurai, Project Director of Chandrayaan-1". Click image above for full size original.
Why this multistage trajectory? Answer is, primarily, caution: "We could have done it [in] one shot, but there is a possibility of missing the moon. So we have adopted an incremental increase in the orbits’ perigee." I suppose "apogee" is meant, & "perigee" is a misquote.
Also, "There will be a need to correct the orbit once in two weeks to maintain a 100 km circular orbit" on moon. I guess at the end of its useful life - meaning propellant & fuel exhausted - it will simply fall somewhere on moon?

Related: Arthur Clarke's novel "Islands in the Sky" lightly touches upon the subject of human littering in space. A habit now when it doesn't cause much damage but a costly danger when space travel becomes common (because habits die hard). Not that ISRO is alone - everyone traveling to space seems to be doing it today.
Mr Annadurai answers several other questions too, including why fire at perigee & how moon capture will happen.
A related point: Reducing the speed - needed for capture by moon & lowering of orbit there - requires that "the orientation of the spacecraft is reversed — turned 180 degrees". This implies the craft is fitted with special orientation rockets that can fire simultaneously in more than one directions. I'd not thought of it; I guess it's needed by all craft that orbit earth too.Chandrayaan-1 is now on "Lunar Transfer Trajectory".Illustration accompanying the ISRO announcement that Chandrayaan spacecraft is now in Lunar Transfer Orbit after the fifth orbit raisingISRO announcement dated 4 November 2008: "The fifth and final orbit raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was successfully carried out today (November 4, 2008) morning at 04:56 am IST... With this, Chandrayaan-1 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory". Current orbital parameters: apogee = 380,000 km. Perigee not specified in the announcement. Click image for original size picture.

Chandrayaan-1 around 3,80,000 km from the earth !!!!

Indian’s moon mission has been raised to 5th orbit. Chandrayaan-1 mission launched twelve days ago is now around 3,80,000 km from the earth. This is the farthest point to which the space craft has traveled from earth.
Chandrayaan is an unmanned lunar exploration mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), India's national space agency. It is also India's first mission to the moon. The mission includes a lunar orbiter and an impactor. The spacecraft was launched by a modified version of the PSLV Xl on 22 October 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. "Chandrayaan" roughly translates to "lunar-sojourn" in many Indian languages.The remote sensing satellite weighs 1,380 kilograms (3,042 lb) at launch and 675 kilograms at lunar orbit and carries high resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infrared, soft and hard X-ray frequencies. Over a two-year period, it is intended to survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography. The polar regions are of special interest, as they might contain ice.And when nears the apogee (the farthest point fom the earth), it will come under the influence of the moon. This will happen on Novemeber 8. The velocity of Chandrayaan-1 is reduced by reverse firing (the spacecraft is turned 180 degrees and then fired) before it reaches the apogee. This helps the moon to capture the spacecraft. But for the velocity reduction, it will not be possible for the moon to capture the spacecraft and make Chandrayaan-1 orbit around the moon. Once captured by the moon, Chandrayaan-1 will be fired again. But this time the firing is not to raise the orbit but to change the course of orbiting — from around the earth to around the moon.

Chandrayaan-1 enters Lunar Transfer Trajectory

The fifth and final orbit raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was successfully carried out at 4.56 am today.
During the manoeuvre, the spacecraft’s 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about two and a half minutes. With this, Chandrayaan-1 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory with an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of about 3,80,000 km, ISRO, said in a release here.
The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore, with support from Indian Deep Space Network(IDSN) antennas at Byalalu.
Since its launch on October 22 by PSLV-C11, all systems onboard Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft are performing normally. Chandrayaan-1 will approach the Moon on November 8 and the spacecraft’s liquid engine will be fired again to insert the spacecraft into lunar orbit, the release added.

Chandrayan 1 within 500 km of the moon

Chandrayan 1 - India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft, moved closer to the moon today, when it broke free from it elliptical orbit around the earth, speeding into deep space towards the moon. This was disclosed by a top space agency official. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) director S. Satish told IANS yesterday, "The liquid apogee motor (LAM) on board will be fired around 5.00 a.m. Tuesday for about five minutes to make the transition and position the spacecraft at about 500 km from the moon's surface and over 3,84,000 km away from the earth."
These complex maneuvers were carried out from the spacecraft's control room at ISRO's telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) in coordination with the deep space network (DSN) at Byalalu, which is about 40 km from Bangalore.
"Additional velocity will be given to the spacecraft to enter the lunar orbit Saturday (Nov 8) for a rendezvous with the moon. With calibrated firing of its LAMs, it will be inserted into its designated orbit, which will be about 100 km from the lunar surface.
In the present orbit, Chandrayaan has taken six days to go round the earth once. The spacecraft performance is being monitored closely and its health parameters are normal," said Mr. Satish.
As you may all be aware, Chandrayaan-1 has been orbiting the earth in an elliptical orbit at 2,67,000 km apogee (farthest point from earth) and 465 km perigee (nearest point to earth) since 29 October.
It was launched on 22 October on board the 316-tonne PSLV-C11 from Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota spaceport off the Andhra Pradesh coast, 80 km north of Chennai. We will keep you posted for more news about the Chandrayan, so keep watching this space.

Chandrayaan-1 was successfully launched into an initial elliptical orbit around the Earth

It may be recalled that the 1380 kg Chandrayaan-1 was successfully launched into an initial elliptical orbit around the Earth by PSLV-C11 on October 22, 2008. This was followed by four orbit raising manoeuvres, which together raised Chandrayaan-1's orbit to a much higher altitude. The spacecraft is now circling the Earth in an orbit whose apogee (farthest point to Earth) lies at 267,000 km (Two lakh sixty seven thousand km) and perigee (nearest point to Earth) at 465 km. In this orbit, Chandrayaan-1 takes about six days to go round the Earth once. The spacecraft performance is being continuously monitored and is normal.

Once in GTO, Chandrayaan's on-board motor will be fired to increase its orbit around the earth. The orbit will be raised five times till it reaches 1,019 km perigee and 386,194 km apogee from the Earth on 8 November.

This orbit will take the spacecraft to the vicinity of the moon. The spacecraft will rotate for about five-and-a-half days before firing the engine to slow its velocity for moon's gravity to capture it. As the spacecraft approaches the moon, its speed will be reduced to enable the gravity of the moon to capture it into an elliptical orbit. A series of engine burns will then lower its orbit to its intended 100 km circular polar orbit. Following this, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) will be ejected from Chandrayaan-1 and all the scientific instruments/payloads are commissioned.

Chandrayaan-1 completed four orbits around the Earth, on 23 October: "The health of the spacecraft is normal and (it is) doing fine. Spinning in elliptical orbit once in every 6 hours and 30 minutes, it has completed four orbits and is in the fifth orbit."

The successful launch of India's maiden unmanned mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-I could throw new light on the formation of Earth's natural satellite. This is one of the main reasons why all the scientists in the country are excited about the launch.

A popular theory about the moon's formation is that a collision between Mars and Earth threw up a large amount of debris which later became the moon.

Kalam pleased with first photographs taken by Chandrayaan

Former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, who holds the moon mission close to his heart, today expressed happiness over the first photographs of Earth taken by the terrain mapping camera on board Chandrayaan-1.
Kalam, who has been closely associated with the country's space programmes, said that he had seen the first pictures of the Earth, shown to him by ISRO chief Madhavan Nair.

"They are good pictures. They are high-resolution pictures," he said on the sidelines of a function organised to mark the launch of an emergency response service in Karnataka.

The photographs, he said, "are indicative of what things hold for us in future." On the moon mission, he said, "every Indian should be proud about the success of the mission." The terrain mapping camera on board India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan took black and white shots of the Earth from deep space. The camera was operated through a series of commands from the spacecraft control center of ISRO's telemetry tracking and command network here.

The first imagery was taken from an altitude of 9000 km above the Earth and second from 70,000 km. PTI

Questioning Chandrayaan's success

BEIJING: India's Chandrayaan mission may have evoked a good bit of national pride

and come in for praise from different quarters worldwide
including the White House in
Washington. But a large section of the Chinese media has raised questions published articles questioning the success of Chandrayaan.

The articles question the contention of Indian Space Research Organisation, which said that Chandrayaan had an apogee of 37,800km with an orbital period of 73 hours. The articles in the Chinese media state that the apogee was only around 16,400 km with an orbital tour of 11 hours.

Most of the articles have been published in websites and blogs popular with the military and nationalist politicians. They include bulletin boards of websites that are linked to government organizations. But the general newspapers have refrained from taking a critical view of the Indian space mission. Most of them are copies of a single article.

The critical articles claim they were the result of analysis of data released by www.n2yo.com, which is a site devoted real time tracking of satellite launched across the world and contains a lot of technical information. Interestingly, the website of US government's National Aeronautics and Space Administration has published an article on Chandrayaan without raising any doubts about it.

Most of the articles are copies of a single piece using almost similar text. The headline common several of the pieces in different websites are: "Orbit not very normal; has India's Chandrayaan-1 run into problem?"

A search on the Chinese search engine, Baidu and the Chinese version of Google throws up several websites where the same article has been pasted. It seems someone or some agency has gone into a good deal of effort to ensure that the article is widely circulated across several media networks including those that represent government agencies.

Some of the Chinese sites also published Chinese versions of another English article, which described Chandrayaan mission as a case of major success in a country that has not been able to curb human rights violations and address the problem of poverty adequately. The source of this second article has not been clarified.

"Though India's human rights performance has been dismal in the last decade with right wing Hindu chauvinists targeting two large minorities of the country, Christians and Muslims but it has not hindered India's ascendance to the big league in the space," the version in the Chinese media said.

Weiler International Electronics and Chandrayaan

City-based electronics firm Weiler International Electronics (WIE) played a crucial role in India’s maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-I by supplying electronic circuits to Indian Space Research Organization ISRO), required for critical applications in making the satellite.

“WIE is the first private company, which has been certified by ISRO for supplying electronic circuits for their satellite applications. At WIE, these electronic circuits are manufactured using Thick Film Technology and are commonly known as Thick film Hybrid Microcircuits. This technology was indigenously developed by WIE and involves compressed integration of semiconductor ICS on a fine printed ceramic substrate,” WIE Managing Director Subashish Roy said.

Satellites require various types of electronic circuits for performing different functions in the space and for communication with earth. For any successful mission (technically and economically) the weight of the satellite is an important parameter, which needs to be focused upon.

These electronic circuits or components can be manufactured by using different technologies. The circuits manufactured using common manufacturing technology i.e. by using conventional printed circuit board and leaded components are quite heavy and consume more square feet area of the satellite.

“On the contrary, electronic circuits manufactured using thick film technology require less area and are light in weight. Thus using thick film hybrid technology route one can fit more number of applications on the satellite,” he said.

The WIE MD said that his company was proud to be associated with ISRO. “Senior ISRO scientists had personally called up to congratulate our team after the successful launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) carrying the payloads for Chandrayaan-I mission. We are certainly looking forward to more such fruitful association in many other prestigious projects for future like Chandrayaan-II and India’s first manned mission to moon,” Roy said.

Congratulate Scientists from Council of Indian Muslims

Council of Indian Muslims—UK (CIM) has congratulated Indian scientists for the launch of Chandrayaan-1, India's first and successful moon mission . “We are proud of our scientists and pray that we continue to hear such positive news from all walks of life from India more often. In the present depressing political environment this news has provided every Indian and every person of Indian origin in the world an opportunity to raise his head with pride.” CIM’s chairman Mohammad Munaf Zeena said in a statement issued today.

“The fact that the 12 member core team of engineers who developed satellite system for the mission included an Indian Muslim woman, Khushboo Mirza, an old student of Aligarh Muslim University, has brought an added happiness for us specially.” Zeena said.

“We congratulate the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that has given the country a solid sense of achievement and has set a shining example of dedication, hard work and the determination to achieve results.” Zeena added.