MOON IMPACT PROBE INSERTION-CHANDRAYAAN

[edit] Injection of MIP on lunar surface

The Moon Impact Probe took this close-up picture of the moon's surface during its descent.

The Moon Impact Probe (MIP) crash-landed on the lunar surface on 14 November 2008, 15:01 UTC (20:31 Indian Standard Time (IST)) near Shackleton Crater at the south pole.The MIP was one of eleven scientific instruments (payloads) onboard Chandrayaan-1.

The MIP separated from Chandrayaan at 100 km from lunar surface and began its nosedive at 14:36 UTC (20:06 IST) going into a free fall for thirty minutes.As it fell, it kept sending information back to the mother satellite which, in turn, beamed the information back to earth. The altimeter then also began recording measurements to prepare for a rover to land on the lunar surface during a second moon mission planned for 2012. When the MIP was closer to the surface, rockets were fired to slow down its speed and to soften impact

Following the successful deployment of MIP, the other scientific instruments will be turned on one-by-one starting the next phase of the two-year mission.

LUNAR ORBIT INSERTION-CHANDRAYAAN MISSION PROFILE

Chandrayaan-1 successfully completed the lunar orbit insertion operation on 8th Nov 2008 at 16:51 IST. This manoeuvre involved firing of the liquid engine for 817 seconds (about thirteen and half minutes) when the spacecraft passed within 500 km from the moon. The satellite was placed in an elliptical orbit that passed over the polar regions of the moon, with 7502 km aposelene (point farthest away from the moon) and 504 km periselene (nearest to the moon). The orbital period was estimated to be around 11 hours. With the successful completion of this operation, India became the fifth nation to put a vehicle in lunar orbit.

First orbit reduction

First Lunar Orbit Reduction Manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 was carried out successfully on 9 November 2008 at 20:03 IST. During this, the engine of the spacecraft was fired for about 57 seconds. This reduced the periselene from 504 km to 200 km while aposelene remained unchanged at 7,502 km. In this elliptical orbit, Chandrayaan-1 took about ten and a half hours to circle the moon once.

Second orbit reduction

This manoeuvre, which resulted in steep decrease in Chandrayaan-1’s aposelene from 7,502 km to 255 km and its periselene from 200 km to 187 km, was carried out on 10 November 2008 at 21:58 IST. During this manoeuvre, the engine was fired for about 866 seconds (about fourteen and half minutes). Chandrayaan-1 took two hours and 16 minutes to go round the Moon once in this orbit.

Third orbit reduction

Third Lunar Orbit Reduction was carried out by firing the on board engine for 31 seconds on 11 November 2008 at 18:30 IST. This reduced the periselene from 187 km to 101 km, while the aposelene remained constant at 255 km. In this orbit Chandrayaan-1 took two hours and 9 minutes to go round the Moon once

Final orbit

Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was successfully placed into a mission specific lunar polar orbit of 100 km above the lunar surface on 12 November 2008.In the final orbit reduction manoeuvre, Chandrayaan-1’s aposelene was reduced from 255 km to 100 km while the periselene was reduced from 101 km to 100 km.In this orbit, Chandrayaan-1 takes about two hours to go round the moon once. Two of the 11 payloads – the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and the Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM) – have already been successfully switched on. The TMC has successfully taken pictures of both the Earth and the moon.

CHANDRAYAAN-1-MISSION ISRO TEAM

The scientists considered instrumental to the success of the Chandrayaan-1 project are:

• G. Madhavan Nair – Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation
• Dr.T. K. Alex – Director, ISAC (ISRO Satellite Centre)
• Mylswamy Annadurai– Project Director, Chandrayan-1
• S. K. Shivkumar – Director - Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network.
• Mr.M.Pitchaimani – Operations Director, Chandrayan-1
• Mr.Leo Jackson John – Spacecraft Operations Manager, Chandrayan-1
• Dr.K.Radhakrishnan – Director, VSSC
• George Koshi –Mission Director,PSLV-C11
• Srinivasa Hegde – Mission Director,Chandrayaan-1
• M C Dattan – Director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre,Sriharikota
• Prof.J N Goswami – Director of Physical Research Laboratory,Ahemadabad and Principal Scientific Investigator of Chandrayaan-1

CHANDRAYAAN-SPECIFICATION

Specifications

Mass

1380 kg at launch, 675 kg at lunar orbit,and 523 kg after releasing the impactor.

Dimensions

Cuboid in shape of approximately 1.5 m

Communications

X band, 0.7 m diameter parabolic antenna for payload data transmission. The Telemetry, Tracking & Command (TTC) communication operates in S band frequency.

Power

The spacecraft is mainly powered by its solar array, which includes one solar panel covering a total area of 2.15 x 1.8 m generating 700 W of power, which is stored in a 36 A·h lithium-ion battery.The spacecraft uses a bipropellant integrated propulsion system to reach lunar orbit as well as orbit and altitude maintenance while orbiting the Moon.