Two more Chandrayaan instruments to be activated in the middle of December

Two of the 10 remaining scientific instruments onboard India’s first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 will be activated in mid-December for conducting experiments.
The sub-kiloelectronvolt (keV) atom reflecting analyser (SARA) and the high-energy x-ray spectrometer (HEX) are scheduled to be activated in mid-December as they need favourable condition from the sun angle. The remaining eight payloads have been energised and are functioning well.
Of the 11 payloads, the moon impact probe (MIP) was successfully lowered onto the lunar surface Nov 14 with excellent results. The other eight instruments are – mini synthetic aperture radar (MiniSAR), moon mineralogy mapper (M3), radiation dose monitor (RADOM), terrain mapping camera (TMC), hyper-spectral imager (HySI), lunar laser ranging instrument (LLRI), imaging x-ray spectrometer (C1XS) and smart near infrared spectrometer (SIR-2).
The MIP camera took about 3,000 images during its 25-minute descent. Some of the images include the ridge of the Shackleton crater and a vivid picture of the field where the probe crash-landed, thus confirming the execution was precise and at the designated place. They are a valuable catch.
The data, received from the mother spacecraft at the deep space network (DSN) at Byalalu, about 40 km from Bangalore, is being caliberated and studied by ISRO scientists.The data is so voluminous that it will take three months to analyse by our experts. The third instrument – the c-band altimeter gave the trajectory of the descent and confirmed whatever we have done was on target. The MIP experiment is unique as the Chinese and Japanese lunar missions did not have such a one.

ISRO scientists have developed Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Automobiles

India’s space scientists have developed hydrogen fuel cells to power an automobile bus by leveraging their know-how of the homegrown cryogenic technology for rockets.

The two-year effort has yielded positive results and the scientists are now readying for the fuel cells to be fitted into a bus.

“That’s not exactly the cryogenic technology… (It’s) liquid hydrogen handling and that’s where we have some expertise. So, we have finalised the design”, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, G Madhavan Nair said.

According to Honorary Adviser of ISRO V Gnana Gandhi leading the technical team in this project, ISRO and Tata Motors entered into an MoU in 2006 to design and develop an automobile bus using hydrogen as a fuel through fuel cell route.

Nair said: “Tatas are taking the responsibility for the locomotive part of it, and hydrogen handling system also.

First protomodel has been assembled. Results are good. May be next year, it should be on the road”.

Gandhi said: “We are planning to integrate the system in the first quarter of next year (January-March 2009), and vehicle integration in the second quarter”.

He said the hydrogen cells are a spin-off of the cryogenic technology that ISRO has been developing for the last few years.

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Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument on Chandrayaan 1 turned on successfully

Another successful day for Indian Space Research Organisation. The Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument, which is onboard in Chandrayaan 1 Spacecraft, is successfully turned on as per the commands from the control centre. The instrument was switched on when the spacecraft was passing through the western visible hemisphere of the moon. Preminilary evalution of the data from LLRI, ISRO scientist has confirmed the normal working of the instrument.

LLRI sends pulses of infrared laser light towards a strip of lunar surface and detects the reflected portion of that light. With this, the instrument can very accurately measure the height of moon’s surface features. LLRI will be continuously kept ON and takes 10 measurements per second on both day and night sides of the moon. It provides topographical details of both polar and equatorial regions of the moon. Detailed analysis of the data sent by LLRI helps in understanding the internal structure of the moon as well as the way that celestial body evolved.

Two days before, on November 14th 2008, India announced it’s presence on moon by the successful job done by the Moon Impact Probe. China, which is one of India’s greatest rival has not planted any National Flag on moon’s surface. This is a great moment for the country. Super Powers like US and Russia has virtually failed on their first attempt. But, We have succeed in our first attempt to the outer space.

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Pictures of Moon’s surface taken by MIP

The following two pictures has been released by ISRO, which was taken by the Moon Impact Probe.

Source: Indian Space Research Organisation

Source: Indian Space Research Organisation

The above images are light weight JPEG Images. If you want the orginal BMP images (large file size), use the below links:

Moon Impact Probe Picture 1

Moon Impact Probe Picture 2

Official Press Release of ISRO on MIP’s success

In a historic event, the Indian space programme achieved a unique feat today (November 14, 2008) with the placing of Indian tricolour on the Moon’s surface on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s birthday.  The Indian flag was painted on the sides of Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, that successfully hit the lunar surface today at 20:31 hrs (8:31 pm) IST. This is the first Indian built object to reach the surface of the moon. The point of MIP’s impact was near the Moon’s South Polar Region. It may be recalled that the modern Indian space programme was initiated in 1962 when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of India.

Weighing 34 kg at the time of its launch onboard Chandrayaan-1, the box shaped MIP carried three instruments – a video imaging system, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer. The video imaging system was intended to take the pictures of the moon’s surface as MIP approached it. The radar altimeter was included to measure the rate of descent of the probe to the lunar surface. Such instruments are necessary for future lunar soft landing missions. And, the mass spectrometer was for studying the extremely thin lunar atmosphere.

MIP’s 25 minute journey to the lunar surface began with its separation from Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft at 20:06 hrs (8:06 pm) IST. This was followed by a series of automatic operations that began with the firing of its spin up rockets after achieving a safe distance of separation from Chandrayaan-1. Later, the probe slowed down with the firing of its retro rocket and started its rapid descent towards the moon’s surface. Information from the its instruments was radioed to Chandrayaan-1 by MIP. The spacecraft recorded this in its onboard memory for later readout. Finally, the probe had a hard landing on the lunar surface that terminated its functioning.

Thus, India’s very first attempt to send a probe to the moon’s surface from its spacecraft orbiting the moon has been successfully concluded.

With the switching ON of two of Chandrayaan-1’s payloads – Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM) – on its journey to moon and with MIP’s successful impact on the lunar surface today, it is planned to switch ON and test the remaining eight payloads of the spacecraft in the coming few days.

Courtesy: ISRO (http://www.isro.gov.in/)