India's Conquest of Moon

by NANDKUMAR KAMAT
Posted on 2008-10-18
Thanks to the vision of former PM, Mr Atal Bihari Bajpayeeji, today India is set to conquer the Moon. He gave the green signal to ISRO to plan the conquest of Moon. As one of world’s most ancient civilisation we have an ancient and rich lunar lore. Earth’s most beloved satellite has been immortalised by Indians in mythology, history, art, literature and culture.
For the first time in history of India’s space research we are taking a giant step by launching the first unmanned Moon exploration mission-Chandrayaan I on October 22 (for official website please visit -http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/home.htm) probably just on the eve of the festival of lamps-Diwali. Perhaps ISRO would like to provide some excitement to Indians celebrating Diwali as the signals from Chandrayaan- orbiter spacecraft get beamed back to Earth. If everything goes as per the plans-on October 22 India would truly join the other space superpowers. According to details provided by ISRO’s official mission website-The mission aims to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of both near and far side of the moon. It would conduct chemical and mineralogical mapping of the entire lunar surface for distribution of elements such as magnesium, aluminum, silicon, calcium, iron and titanium, radon, uranium and thorium. Simultaneously it would perform photo geological and chemical mapping to get data for early evolutionary history of the moon and help in determining the nature and stratigraphy of the lunar crust.
The spacecraft is a Cuboid in shape of approximately 1.50 m side weighing 1,304 kg at launch and 590 kg at lunar orbit. It would carry eleven science payloads. 700W of peak power would be supplied through a canted single-sided deployable solar array. During eclipse spacecraft will be powered by Lithium ion (Li-Ion) batteries.
The spacecraft employs a X-band, 0.7 m diameter parabolic antenna for payload data transmission to ISRO’s specially built station in Bangalore.The spacecraft uses a bipropellant integrated propulsion system which carries required propellant for a mission life of 2 years, with adequate margin The spacecraft has three Solid State Recorders (SSRs) on board to record data from various payloads SSR-1 will store science payload data, SSR-2 will store science payload data along with spacecraft attitude information (gyro and star sensor), satellite house keeping and other auxiliary data. M3 (Moon Mineralogy Mapper) payload has an independent SSR with 10Gb capacity. Ground Segment for Chandrayaan-1 comprises three major elements viz. Deep Space Station (DSN), Spacecraft Control Center (SCC) and Indian Space Science Data Center (ISSDC). This trio of ground facility ensures the success of the mission by providing to and fro conduit of communication, securing good health of the spacecraft, maintaining the orbit and attitude to the requirements of the mission and conducting payload operations. Payloads comprise-Terrain Mapping stereo Camera (TMC) in the panchromatic band, having 5 m spatial resolution and 20 km swath. Hyper Spectral Imaging camera (HYSI) operating in 400-950 nm band with a spectral resolution of 15nm and spatial resolution of 80m with a swath of 20km. Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) with height resolution of about 10m. A High Energy X-ray spectrometer (HEX) and a Moon Impact Probe (MIP) as piggyback on the main orbiter of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft which will impact on the surface of the moon. The spacecraft would carry six foreign payloads. A X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS) through ESA -a collaboration between Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK and ISRO Satellite Centre, ISRO, a Near Infra Red spectrometer (SIR-2) from Max Plank Institute, Lindau, Germany through ESA. A Sub KeV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA) through ESA, from Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Sweden and Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO. Besides there is Radiation Dose Monitor Experiment (RADOM) from Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. A Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) from Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University and Naval Air Warfare Centre, USA through NASA Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) from Brown University and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA through NASA Chandrayaan-1 would be put in a lunar Polar orbiter at an altitude of about 100 km from the lunar surface. The upgraded version of PSLV viz., PSLV-C11 will be used to inject 1,304 kg mass spacecraft at 240 x 24,000 km orbit and the corresponding spacecraft mass is 590kg when the target lunar orbit of 100 km is achieved.
Students of science and engineering need to note down these details in advance and vigorously follow up the progress of the mission after the launch because thousands of new and challenging career opportunities are waiting for them once Chandrayaan-I becomes successful. India is destined to explore the Solar system and even reach for the stars-the world should have no doubts about it. October 22 would be a golden day for our country. Be prepared to celebrate it before the festive mood of Diwali.