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Chandrayaan-1 Update: Mission on Course
Jayesh Limaye, Nov 06, 2008 1234 hrs ISTMission going as planned
We had reported on Tuesday that the rockets aboard the Chandrayaan-1 were fired to lift it beyond its elliptical orbit around the Earth and send it on its way to the Moon. Well, things are going smoothly and Indian space scientists are hopeful that the spacecraft will start orbiting the Moon on Saturday.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman, Madhavan Nair said at Gandhinagar, "If everything goes right, by November 8, Chandrayaan-1 will start circling the Moon. The last orbit-raising manoeuvres to enter the lunar transfer trajectory were completed Tuesday by the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore." He was at Gandhinagar to attend the inaugural 28th International Congress on Mapping and Space Technology-INCA-2008, which has been organized jointly by ISRO and the International Cartographic Association. There are about 400 delegates participating, with participants from India, U.S., Australia, Germany and other countries.
The orbit-raising maneuver on Tuesday was the fifth of its kind and has successfully launched the spacecraft into a trajectory that will take it to the Moon, after which it will get locked into a lunar orbit. The previous four orbit-raising maneuvers took place on 23, 25, 26 and 29 October 2008, respectively.
For those who came in late, the Chandrayaan-1 was launched on October 22 and was orbiting the Earth into an increasingly elliptical orbit with the five orbit-raising rocket firings, taking 7 hours for each revolution. The fifth one was the final one, with it escaping from the Earth's orbit into a lunar orbit at 4:56 a.m. IST (00:26 UTC) on 4 November. In this last orbit-raising maneuver, the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid-fuel propelled engine was fired for about two and a half minutes, launching it into a lunar transfer orbit, when it was at the apogee from Earth at a distance of about 3,80,000 km.
Chandrayaan-1 is scheduled to approach the Moon on 8 November, when its liquid-fuel propelled engine will be fired again to insert it into the Lunar Transfer Trajectory (LTT) in what is known as a "lunar orbit insertion" maneuver. During this maneuver, the spacecraft will decelerate to allow it to get captured into an elliptical lunar orbit. Further maneuvers will be performed to progressively lower its altitude until it reaches a final circular orbit at a distance of around 100 km from the Moon's surface.
Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to venture beyond Earth's orbit, is led by ISRO. ESA has coordinated and supported the provision of the three European instruments on board (C1XS, SARA, SIR-2), and assisted ISRO in areas such as flight dynamics and is supporting data archiving and processing. As a result of the collaboration, ESA and ISRO will share the data from their respective instruments. Other international partners in the mission include Bulgaria and the USA.
On a side note, Chandrayaan-1's Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) was successfully tested on October 29 and transmitted the first images of Earth, taken by it.
This image of the Earth was taken on 29 October 2008, at 08:00 IST (03:30 UTC), and shows the Northern coast of Australia from a height of 9000 km.
This image of Earth was taken on 29 October 2008, at 12:30 IST (08:00 UTC), and shows the Southern coast of Australia from a height of 70 000 km.
Image courtesy: www.esa.int
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman, Madhavan Nair said at Gandhinagar, "If everything goes right, by November 8, Chandrayaan-1 will start circling the Moon. The last orbit-raising manoeuvres to enter the lunar transfer trajectory were completed Tuesday by the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore." He was at Gandhinagar to attend the inaugural 28th International Congress on Mapping and Space Technology-INCA-2008, which has been organized jointly by ISRO and the International Cartographic Association. There are about 400 delegates participating, with participants from India, U.S., Australia, Germany and other countries.
The orbit-raising maneuver on Tuesday was the fifth of its kind and has successfully launched the spacecraft into a trajectory that will take it to the Moon, after which it will get locked into a lunar orbit. The previous four orbit-raising maneuvers took place on 23, 25, 26 and 29 October 2008, respectively.
For those who came in late, the Chandrayaan-1 was launched on October 22 and was orbiting the Earth into an increasingly elliptical orbit with the five orbit-raising rocket firings, taking 7 hours for each revolution. The fifth one was the final one, with it escaping from the Earth's orbit into a lunar orbit at 4:56 a.m. IST (00:26 UTC) on 4 November. In this last orbit-raising maneuver, the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid-fuel propelled engine was fired for about two and a half minutes, launching it into a lunar transfer orbit, when it was at the apogee from Earth at a distance of about 3,80,000 km.
Chandrayaan-1 is scheduled to approach the Moon on 8 November, when its liquid-fuel propelled engine will be fired again to insert it into the Lunar Transfer Trajectory (LTT) in what is known as a "lunar orbit insertion" maneuver. During this maneuver, the spacecraft will decelerate to allow it to get captured into an elliptical lunar orbit. Further maneuvers will be performed to progressively lower its altitude until it reaches a final circular orbit at a distance of around 100 km from the Moon's surface.
Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to venture beyond Earth's orbit, is led by ISRO. ESA has coordinated and supported the provision of the three European instruments on board (C1XS, SARA, SIR-2), and assisted ISRO in areas such as flight dynamics and is supporting data archiving and processing. As a result of the collaboration, ESA and ISRO will share the data from their respective instruments. Other international partners in the mission include Bulgaria and the USA.
On a side note, Chandrayaan-1's Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) was successfully tested on October 29 and transmitted the first images of Earth, taken by it.
This image of the Earth was taken on 29 October 2008, at 08:00 IST (03:30 UTC), and shows the Northern coast of Australia from a height of 9000 km.
This image of Earth was taken on 29 October 2008, at 12:30 IST (08:00 UTC), and shows the Southern coast of Australia from a height of 70 000 km.
Image courtesy: www.esa.int
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