Chandrayaan-1 may be lost in space, but the spirit behind the mission is buoyant. The moon mission was a success, but ISRO will have to learn its lessons and keep its space missions on full throttle.
Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organisation on Sunday formally called off the Chandrayaan-1 moon mission after the Indian Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore inexplicably lost radio contact with the craft. Many would view this as a great setback to India's space odyssey as Chandrayaan-1 had a life span of two years but lasted just 312 days sniffing the lunar surface for water, minerals and rare materials.
But what many fail to underline is the fact that this was India's first shot at the moon and getting a satellite up there traversing over 4000 km in space was indeed a major achievement. There are other milestones too in Chandrayaan-1's maiden trip to the moon. The mission placed India's tricolour on the lunar surface, found iron on the moon, detected the first x-ray signature from the moon, found calcium and silicon deposits and sent back a huge pile of high resolution photographs as it did 3400 orbits. All this would bring out a mine of information as the pictures are decoded in the coming months.
If this was not success, what else is? As former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam put it: "It was the first launch of Chandrayaan-1, and for a first launch it is a great success. We have got data from ten instruments of the spacecraft in the last 10 months. This means the mission is completed."
What also needs flagging here is that among the 70 spacecraft sent so far to study the moon, Chandrayaan-1 had the largest number of instruments on board -- 11. Of the 11 instruments, five were from India, and six from different countries including the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria. It other words, it was an international mission with India as the captain.
There are various view points regarding chandrayann-1 mission success by media and public. It is good to put things in proper perspective.
(I retired from ISRO in August 2007. I was Programme Director overseeing
remote sensing, chandrayaan-1 and small satellite missions of ISRO.)
By all standards Chandrayaan-1 mission is a successful mission beyond doubt.
1. The mission was conceived after careful study by a national committee.
The scientific instruments selected were to collect new data on the moon
in closer proximity to the moon which was not accomplished by the earlier
mission. The importance of international agencies participation in the mission
was well understood to enhance the scientific objective of chandrayann-1.
Accordingly scientific instruments from Nasa,Esa were included. The
combination of instruments would provide data of moon in relation to high
resolution atlas of the moon, Chemical and mineral mapping of the moon
besides possible detection of water ice at poles. From the initial data of
of chandrayann-1 there was a news item from Dr.Carle Peters of Brown
University of USA that that their instrument moon minerology mapper
has found evidence of new minerals.
2. Placing the spacecraft in moon orbit is no mean task. Based on the caution
given by other space agencies to Chairmen- isro on the possible failures
and difficulties that may be encountered to reach moon orbit by the
spacecraft, The team was extremely careful in performing mission analysis
and our effort was checked with other space agencies experts to ensure
that we are on the right track being the first mission. Chandryann-1 was
put in 100 km of moon flawlessly in the first attempt. This was something
new and ISRO rightly deserves all appreciation for this great feat.
3. Once the satellite is placed in orbit, during its mission life, if some anomalies
occur, there are redundancies and other mission scenarios available to the
mission team to handle the mission. This was, what was done by isro and
other space agencies do the same as well.
4. For Chandrayann-1 it takes approximately 10 months to cover the moon
surface (one cycle). By virtue of the geometry of the spacecraft and requirement
dictated by scientific instruments, there will be gaps of the moon surface, of
the data collected by some instrument which can be observed in the next cycle.
That is the reason for a 2 year mission of Chandrayaan. Due to premature
termination of the mission one will not get the data of the entire surface of the
moon. But this one cycle data will give enough information to study the moon.
It will take sometime for the scientist to analyse the data. That is why we can
say beyond doubt that Chandayann-1 is a successful mission.
5. The star sensor used in chandrayann-1 is also used in ISRO IRS missions
that are working satisfactorily. No doubt it is a very important sensor for
mission. This is a very complex sensor involving expertise in optics,electronics,
mechanical,thermal,computational etc developed in-house. Not many
countries in the world make this instrument. Space is a high risk business.
Isro will definely find out the cause and correct for the future missin.
6. Rs.386 crores spent on chandrayann-1 is not to be talked at all when one
looks at the benefit that occurred.
- still meaningful data of chandrayann-1 has been collected.
- chandrayann-1 is a precursor to future planaetary mission in terms of
missin planning and analysis. This has been amply domenstrated by
chandrayann-1 mission.
- The deep space network installed at BYLALU/Bangalore at a cost of
approximately Rs. 100 crores is an engineering marvel. It is a 32 metre
dish antenna developed indigenously lead M/S ECIL- Hyderabad.
It is a permanent asset that can be used for future missions
including foreign agencies. At
Chandryaan-1 is our first mission and it was succuessfully launced at frist attempt itself compared to other countries. So isro has not wasted any of indian (tax payers) money and it has been used for india's development only. Isro utilised it upto 95% in this period and colleted many useful datas through our satellite and other payloads. (and next one year also we are going to get d same data only if sensor could have not corrupted). So there is no doubt , Chandryaan-1 was 100% successful mission. Every indian must proud of India as captain for that international mission.
the launch of chandrayan-1 is a sure success and its failure at this stage still more a success considering that in advanced countries rate of failure is much higher.we already had about 95% of datas we indented to collect and this failure will give it a chance to go in to the reasons for it.
surya.