NASA’s another setback!

A US satellite to monitor global carbon dioxide emissions plummeted into the ocean near Antarctica on Tuesday after failing to reach orbit, NASA said, calling it a major disappointment for climate science.

The satellite launched successfully from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a Taurus XL rocket at 1:55 am (0951 GMT), NASA said.

A fatal mission error occurred minutes after liftoff when a clamshell-like nose cone known as a fairing, which protects the satellite during its ascent, failed to separate properly.

“The initial indications show that the vehicle did not have enough lift to reach orbit and landed short of Antartica in the ocean,” said John Brunschwyler, program director for the Taurus rocket at Orbital Sciences Corporation, the Virginia-based company that built it.

“Our whole team at a very personal level are disappointed, we are very upset with the results,” he said, noting that six out of seven Taurus rockets launched between 1994 and 2004 have flown without any problems.

NASA flight director Chuck Dovale called it “a huge disappointment” for the science community.

It was the first time NASA had used a Taurus rocket, but Brunschwyler said the system has had a nearly perfect record in previous flights with no issues with the fairing design.

“The liftoff was smooth,” Jet Propulsion Laboratory spokesman Alan Buis told AFP. “It was pretty far along in the ascent” over the Pacific Ocean when the “contingency” was declared, Buis said.

The mission of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) was to map the global distribution of carbon dioxide and study how it changes over time, NASA said.

Carbon dioxide is the leading greenhouse gas driving climate change. Other than the verbal commentary during the launch there was little visual indication on NASA TV that the satellite had failed.

“Several minutes into the flight, launch managers declared a contingency when the fairing failed to separate properly,” NASA said in a brief statement.

Dovale said all indications were that all stages of the launch vehicle burned, so there was no threat to the environment from the toxic hydrazine fuel on board.

An investigation board would be formed to determine the “probable cause” of the failure, he said.

Michael Freilich, the director of NASA’s science division, said it was unclear how long it might take to field a replacement for the OCO, which took eight years to develop.

It was NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide, though not the first in orbit: on January 23 Japan launched the world’s first satellite dedicated to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions.

“The science is moving forward so it’s difficult to put a precise time delay on how quickly in the future we would be able to realize the understanding that OCO would have given us, having succeeded,” Freilich said.

The Japanese mission aims to help scientists measure the density of carbon dioxide and methane from almost the entire surface of the Earth, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

A Japanese-made H-2A rocket carrying the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) blasted off from Tanegashima, a small island in southern Japan.

The satellite is collecting data from 56,000 locations around the world, a dramatic increase from the 282 observation points available as of last October, JAXA said.

Japan hopes the mission will provide governments with useful data as they come under pressure to meet their 2008-2012 Kyoto Protocol goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

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.

RISAT to be launched by the middle of 2009

Really, “NO DREAM, TOO BIG” for Indian Space Research Organisation. Chandrayaan 1 mission has declared a success. By next week, Chandrayaan 1 Space Craft would has implanted the tricolour on Moon’s Surface. We were waiting for that glorious moment. Also by next week, all the scientific payloads in Chandrayaan will be switched on!. ISRO now has the plan for next year also.

RISAT will be launched into space by the middle of next year. RISAT is Radar Imaging Satellite. Present network of remote sensing satellites that belong to India, can only take satellite images during clear cloud conditions only. They cannot take photos during cloudy or rainy times. So for ISRO is using Canadian Satellite for weather monitoring during adverse times. Because, all the remote sensing satellites use visible light. So a Radar Imaging Satellite is important for India. RISAT is getting final touches.

ISRO is planning to launch it by the middle of 2009. No doubt, It will be a Success.

ISRO releases new pictures taken by TMC, which is on board on Chandrayaan 1

Following is the picture taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera, which is on board in Chandrayaan 1:

Road to Chandrayaan 2 has began!

With Chandrayaan-1 well on its way to moon without any glitch, Indian Space Research Organisation has now initiated a dialogue with its Russian counterpart of worksharing of Chandrayaan-2 which features a lander and a rover.

“Conceptual studies are in place. Overall configuration is finalised but the scientific experiments are yet to be finalised. It may take six months (for finalisation)”, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said in Bangalore.

“The lander will be from Russia. The Russian space agency is cooperating with us. The rover will be a joint development between Russia and India. Many of the scientific instruments (payloads on board Chandrayaan-2) will be from India”, Nair, also Secretary in the Department of Space, said.

Unlike the Chandrayaan-1 which will orbit the moon at an altitude of 100 km mapping topography and the mineralogical content of the lunar soil, the Chandrayaan-2 mission involves a lunar orbiting spacecraft and a lander and a rover on the moon’s surface.

Project Director of Chandrayaan-1 Mayilsami Annadurai said the Government has approved a Rs 425 crore budget for the Chandrayaan-2 venture, with seed money of Rs 50 crore already in place.

Even for building the lander, India can contribute its expertise, Annadurai said, adding, work-sharing discussions on the mission (who will do what) are in progress with the Russian space agency.

“After the lander lands gently on the Moon’s surface, rover will come out and it can move around. It will pick up soil or sand. We will have some instruments that will enable the rover to do in situation (chemical and mineralogical) analysis there (to probe on the presence water vapour and Helium-3 and things of that nature)”, Annadurai said.

Instead of bringing the samples back to earth, ISRO scientists said the rover would be able to do analysis there and send data to the orbiting satellite which then in turn will transmit to the earth with the Indian Deep Space Network performing the task of receiving the radio signals.

Annadurai said Chandrayaan-2 is targeted to be launched four years from the launch of Chandrayaan-1 -October 2012.

Chandrayaan-2 will be a three-tonne class satellite, he said.

Officials of the Bangalore-headquartered ISRO said there might be a provision to accommodate payloads from other space agencies on board Chandrayaan-2 as happened in Chandrayaan-1.

But Nair said: “We have not made an assessment of the payloads which are going on board (Chandrayaan-2). So, that will happen in the next six months. Then we will decide. If there is extra capacity, we will use that (give it to other space agencies)”.