Sunday Reading
New
Delhi, 11 October 2008
Chandrayaan-1
Mission
EYES
ON WEATHERGODS FOR TIMELY LAUNCH
By
Radhakrishna Rao
Everything is going as planned. India’s first
lunar probe Chandrayaan-1, with a lift-off mass of 1300-kg will be launched
before October-end this year. Even as the countdown for its launch has been
signaled with the stacking of the stages of an augmented version of the space
workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the take off is subject
to prevalence of clear weather. Normally, the Indian space port in Sriharikota Island on the eastern coast, Satish
Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), is subject to seasonal cyclonic lash during the last
quarter of the year.
On its part the Bangalore-based Satellite
Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which has designed and
developed Chandryaan-1, has completed a gamut of checks. These include vibration
and acoustic tests to prepare the lunar probe for its 400,000-km long rigorous
journey to the moon. After its integration with the four-stage PSLV at SDSC,
Chandrayaan-1 will again be subjected to a further series of checks so that
there are no hitches during its upcoming cosmic journey.
As things stand now, ISRO is looking
at a launch window between October 20 and 28. If for reasons beyond its
control, it misses this launch target, Chandrayaan-1 will then get underway sometime
in November. On the other hand, if Chandrayaan-1 launch takes place as planned,
it will be stabilized in the lunar orbit of 100 km by the first week of
November.
In order to monitor and support the
Chandrayaan-mission, ISRO has set up a Deep Space Station (DSN) at Byalalu
village on the outskirts of Bangalore.
According to ISRO sources, the DSN, made up of an 18-m antenna system and a
32-metre antenna system will also be pressed into service for monitoring and
supporting the country’s futuristic deep space missions, including
Chandrayaan-1 and Astrosat astronomy research satellites.
As pointed out by ISRO, the mission
objectives of Chandrayaan-1 include preparation of a three-dimensional atlas of
both the near and far side of the moon and to carry out chemical and
mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface for identifying the
distribution of minerals and chemical elements. On another front, Chandrayaan-1
designed for a lifespan of two years, shall look for signs of water and Helium-3 in lunar
topography.
Helium-3 is considered a rich and
environmentally friendly source of energy .Mining and transportation of Helium-3
to earth is already on the agenda of advanced space-faring countries. There has
been a renewal and resurgence of interest in exploring the moon from a fresh
prospective on account of the possibility of water and Helium-3 available on it.
The wealth of data being made available by Chandrayaan-1 will also throw fresh
light on the evolution and early history of our spaceship earth, as also the
dynamics of the formation of moon.
Incidentally, China launched its first lunar
probe Chang’e-2 last year. And the launch of Chandrayaan-1 will make India the fifth
country in the world to send a probe to earth’s satellite. Chandrayaan-1
features five Indian payloads and six international scientific probes. The
Indian payloads include a terrain mapping stereo camera, a hyper spectral
imaging camera, a lunar ranging instrument, a high energy x-ray spectrometer as
well as a Moon Impact Probe (MIP).
Significantly, MIP was not envisaged
as a part of the original Chandrayaan-1 mission. Its inclusion as a piggy back
payload on the main orbiter of Chandryaan-1 spacecraft was prompted by plans to
build and launch futuristic robotic landing missions to moon. Evidently, MIP
has been designed to impact on the surface of the moon carrying a CCD camera, a
radar altimeter and high sensitivity mass spectrometer providing continuous
data till the point of impact.
While China
has hinted that it was planning to go in for a manned mission to the moon, India is yet to
firm up a plan for the human exploration of the earth’s neighbor. Sometime back
ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair had stated that at the moment, a manned mission
to the moon was not on the radar of the space agency. He, of course, also made
it clear that before India
decides to take up this ambitious project, there would be a need to study the
available technological options other than novel technologies that would need
to be developed for such a mission to the moon.
Once Chandraayan-1 is stabilized in
orbit, ISRO will focus its attention on preparing the ground for the first manned
mission slated for a take off sometime during mid next decade. The programme
envisages the development of a fully autonomous orbital vehicle carrying two or
three crew members to 400-km low earth orbit and their safe return.
In a significant development, the Union
Government has approved the proposal for India’s second lunar probe
Chandrayaan-II which will feature a robotic rover designed to land on the lunar
surface. Chandrayaan-II, which will be developed in association with Russia, is
planned to be launched by means of the three-stage GSLV (Geosynchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle) from SDSC. The rover will move on wheels on the lunar
surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do a chemical analysis and send the
data to the mother spacecraft orbiting around the moon.
While ISRO will develop the main
orbiter, the Russian Federal Space Agency will build the landing platform along
with the rover. Though the exact landing site of the rover onboard
Chandrayaan-II is yet to be identified, Aitkan basin near the South Pole of the
moon is one of the potential candidates. The Government has already sanctioned
Rs.4250-million for the Chandrayaan-II, which is planned to be launched during
2011-12.
The main Chandrayaan-II spacecraft
will carry remote sensing instruments, a terrain mapping camera and a nano
meter hyper-spectral imager, capable of viewing in the visible, ultra violet
and infrared regions. In addition, Chandrayaan-II will feature a low-energy
spectrometer with charge coupled device (CCD) arrays, which are likely to be
accommodated in Chandrayaan-II.
In a related development, the US’ National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has hit upon the idea of building
what has been described as the biggest-ever telescope on the lunar surface with
a mixture of carbon and lunar dust. “We
would make huge telescopes on the moon relatively easily and avoid the large
expenses of transporting a large mirror from the earth” being NASA’s idea. This
telescope will be capable of taking images of the earth with a high degree of
precision and great details. Till then all eyes would be on the launch of Chandrayaan-1---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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