Chandrayaan-1 inches closer

The first orbit reduction manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, which is orbiting the moon, was successfully performed .As part of that manoeuvre which began at 8.03 pm, the 440 Newton liquid engine of the spacecraft was fired for about 57 seconds.With this, the nearest point of Chandrayaan-1’s orbit (Periselene) from the Moon’s surface was reduced from 504 km to 200 km, while the farthest point (Aposelene) remained unchanged at 7,502 km. In this elliptical orbit, Chandrayaan-1 takes about ten-and a-half hours to circle the Moon once. It may be recalled that the lunar orbit insertion manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 was successfully performed on November 8, 2008 and the spacecraft entered into an orbit around the Moon with a periselene of 504 km and an Aposelene of 7,502 km. The health as well as the orbit of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft is being closely monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with crucial support from Indian Deep Space Network antennas at Byalalu. The spacecraft performance is normal. Further orbit reduction manoeuvres are scheduled in the coming days to take Chandrayaan-1 to its final operational orbit of 100 km height from the lunar surface. After this, the Moon Impact Probe, one of the 11 scientific instruments (payloads) of Chandrayaan-1, will be released to hit the Moon’s surface.

Chandrayaan 1 update

Chandrayaan-I is now more than half way to the moon with the fourth orbitraising manoeuvre executed flawlessly on Wednesday at 7.38 am. The mission lifted off at Sriharikota on October 22.Director of Isro’s telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) S K Shivakumar said during this manoeuvre the spacecraft’s 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about three minutes resulting in Chandrayaan-I entering a more elliptical orbit. Its apogee (farthest point to earth) lies at 2,67,000 km and the perigee (nearest point to earth) is at 465 km.Chandrayaan-I’s present orbit extends more than half the way to the moon, he said. In this orbit, the spacecraft takes about six days to go round the earth once. Shivakumar said the next firing will be on Monday which will further raise the spacecraft’s altitude to 3,84,000 km. The motor will be fired for 2.5 minutes. “This will be the last earth-bound firing before the spacecraft enters the lunar orbit on November 8,” he said.He said for the lunar orbit insertion (LOI) on November 8, which will take place at 5 pm, the engine will be fired for 800 seconds. Though Shivakumar said all manouvres were equally crucial, others in the Chandrayaan team said the LOI will be the most nerve-wracking. Even a minor deviation in the timing of the engine’s firing can doom the mission.“The ground stations in Thiruvanathapuram, Bangalore, Mauritius, Port Blair and Brunei are monitorning the firing of the spacecraft’s engines especially at the perigee. The process is working flawlessly with one station handing over charge to the other smoothly. It’s like a relay race,” Shivakumar said.He called the flight of the 29-kg moon impact probe from the main spacecraft to the lunar surface either on November 14 or 15 a ballistic descent or an uncontrolled flight. “The exact spot where it will crash land on the moon is being worked out by scientists,” he said.At present, a team of about 100 to 150 officials at Istrac in Bangalore are exclusively dedicated to Chandrayaan operations. “They’re working round-the-clock in shifts and some even have extended shifts in case the need arises,” he said. Once Chandrayaan gets into the routine phase of operations, the number of personnel assigned to the mission will be reduced to about 25, says.

Chandrayaan I update

Inching closer to its final destination, India’s first moon-bound spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 on Saturday became the most successful among all Indian space missions with the furthest point in its current orbit around the earth touching 74,715 km. No Indian spacecraft had gone beyond 36,000 km in space till now.“The second orbitraising manoeuver of Chandrayaan-1 space craft was carried out at 05:48 hrs IST this morning (October 25, 2008) when the spacecraft’s 440 Newton Liquid Engine was fired for about 16 minutes by commanding the spacecraft from Spacecraft Control Centre,” an ISRO statement said. “This is the first time an Indian spacecraft has gone beyond the 36,000 km high geo-stationary orbit and reached an altitude twice that height. In this orbit Chandrayaan 1 takes about 25 hours and 30 minutes to go round the earth once,” ISRO officials said. ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair has called it a ‘record breaking’ day for the mission.
Chandrayaan 1’s initial launch by the PSLV-XL launch vehicle on October 22 placed it in an elliptical orbit around the earth with a perigee (closest point to earth) of 255 km and an apogee (farthest point from earth) of 22,860 km. To reach the moon the spacecraft has to cover a total distance of 3,86,000 km and it is expected to settle into a lunar orbit, 100 km from the Moon on November 8.“When you go further and further, the earth’s influence comes down. The influence of the Moon and Sun becomes pre dominant. Even other planets will have an influence on it,” Nair said. ISRO has reported good conditions for all systems on board Chandrayaan-1.

6.22 am Sriharikota 22nd October 2008...

Blast off !

The Chandrayaan I countdown begins

As the launch of Chandrayaan-I, India’s first mission to the moon, entered its final hours, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota was buzzing with activity and excitement.The countdown — reduced from 52 to 49 hours since activities ahead of it were completed three hours in advance — began at 5.22 on Monday morning. This countdown period will entail wide-ranging synchronised activities during which a large number of scientists will perform different sets of well-rehearsed tasks, leading to the historic launch on Wednesday at 6.20 in the morning. “This is the most exciting phase. Until the time the satellite is launched successfully, I think hardly anyone will be able to sleep. There are a number of tasks that have to be completed very carefully and everyone is busy with their jobs,” said Dr M Y S Prasad, associate director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The most important among these tasks is to fill liquid propellants and pressurised gas in the second and fourth stage engines of PSLV-C11, the launch vehicle for Chandrayaan. This is expected to consume more than 30 hours of the countdown period.
“As of now, everything has gone on smoothly, exactly as planned. There have been no hiccups and no anxious moments,” Prasad assured. Apart from filling up the engines with liquid propellants, scientists will also be busy with a few launch tests that need to be done during the countdown period. The testing of all the 11 payloads being carried by Chandrayaan has already been completed successfully.
Chandrayaan-I, India’s boldest and most ambitious scientific endeavour till date, is designed to carry out a number of experiments aimed at increasing humankind’s knowledge of the moon. Among the tasks that Chandrayaan-I is attempting to do for the first time ever is to map a high-resolution three-dimensional topography of the moon’s entire surface. It will also try to determine the mineral composition of moon’s surface through spectroscopic data and attempt to confirm the presence of water ice in the polar regions.

Chandrayaan I

This may happen perhaps once in a blue moon — the unusual sight of a spacecraft travelling on the road. India’s spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 sat sedately on a trailer as its historic Moon journey began on the Earth early Thursday morning amid the bustle of traffic. It was all quiet at 5.30 am at the ISRO Satellite Centre. The action began 15 minutes later. At 5.45 am, a local police unit arrived at the centre to ensure everything was smooth and clear for the trailer to drive out on to HAL Airport Road. Soon after, vehicles with ISRO engineers came in one by one. A pilot CISF vehicle and another armed vehicle then settled in. When all people and vehicles were in place, around 6 am, the trailer carrying the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft drove out of the centre accompanied by vehicles of engineering and security staff to begin its journey to Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.The drive to the main highway leading to Sriharikota too was smooth. As the trailer and the convoy proceeded on HAL Airport Road, most people and vehicles went about their business as usual. The trailer seemed like any another big truck. Not many seemed to be aware that it was carrying Chandrayaan-1, that would create India’s space history. The convoy maintained a speed of 10-15 km an hour all along HAL Airport Road before it reached a point where it headed off towards Sriharikota. The only aspect that made the trailer stand out was the armed guards behind. That would have at best evoked curiosity about what they were guarding with no way of knowing it was a spacecraft with Indian and international instruments. ISRO officials and engineers arranged for security while ensuring that too much attention was not drawn to the convoy. The convoy is expected to reach Sriharikota by Friday evening. The launch of the spacecraft is scheduled anytime after October 20.