| Scientific Objectives | ||||||||
| The Chandrayaan-1 mission is aimed at high-resolution remote sensing of the moon in visible, near infrared (NIR), low energy X-rays and high-energy X-ray regions. Specifically the objectives are | ||||||||
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| The Simultaneous photo geological, mineralogical and chemical mapping through Chandrayaan-1 mission will enable identification of different geological units to infer the early evolutionary history of the Moon. The chemical mapping will enable to determine the stratigraphy and nature of the Moon's crust and thereby test certain aspects of magma ocean hypothesis. This may allow to determine the compositions of impactors that bombarded the Moon during its early evolution which is also relevant to the formation of the Earth. | ||||||||
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| Radiation Environment of the Moon | ||||||||
| Radiation environment of the Moon produced by solar radiation and solar and galactic cosmic rays: The reflectance spectrum is useful for mineral identification, the fluorescent X-ray spectrum and solar and galactic cosmic-ray produced gamma radiation for chemical mapping, and radiogenic gamma and alpha particle spectrum for mapping of radioactive nuclides (U, Th, K, etc.) and in understanding the leakage of radon from the lunar interior and its transport on the lunar surface. The uranium decay chain, which produces 222Rn and its daughters, forming a thin 'paint' on the lunar surface, are shown on the right. The temperature regimes on the sunlit and night side of the Moon and the permanently shadowed cold Polar Regions are shown schematically. (Ref: Current Science, Bhandari 2004) | ||||||||
| Mission Objectives | ||||||||
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
CHANDRAYAAN 1 -SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVES AND MISSION OBJECTIVES
INDIAN MOON TRIP LAUNCHING SITE BEFORE LAUNCHING
The fully assembled PSLV-C11, which will launch Chandrayaan-1 on October 22, stands encased in the Vehicle Assembly Building of the second launch pad at Sriharikota on Saturday. In the foreground is the launch pad to which the PSLV -C11 will be wheeled on rail tracks on October 18.
SRIHARIKOTA: If all goes well, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, to be launched by the Polar Satellite Vehicle (PSLV-C11) on October 22 at 6.20 a.m. from the Sriharikota space port, will reach the lunar orbit on November 8, according to M.Y.S. Prasad, Associate Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
About 1,000 engineers and technicians of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have rolled up their sleeves and are working hard for the past two months to ensure a flawless launch. The 52-hour countdown will begin on October 20 at 4 a.m.
On Saturday, the PSLV-C11, which is 44.4 metres tall and weighs 316 tonnes, looked majestic in the huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) of the state-of-the-art second launch pad on the Sriharikota island. As it gleamed in white and brown colours, the VAB’s massive doors, in contrast, shone in speckled grey.
“All checks on the vehicle are completed. The vehicle is now ready to receive the satellite,” declared T. Subba Reddy, Manager, Second Launch Pad, when journalists visited the complex.
A few kilometres away, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, which weighs 1,380 kg, is undergoing a battery of tests to test its flight-worthiness.
The spacecraft will be moved to the VAB on October 14 and married up with the PSLV-11. The “marriage ceremonies” such as filling Chandrayaan-1 with propellants and gas, and cobbling of the heat-shield which protects the spacecraft through searing heat when the rocket climbs through the atmosphere, will be performed over the next four days. On October 18 will begin the extremely slow journey of the rocket with the spacecraft, as if it were a temple chariot with the deity, from the VAB to the launch pad.
The PSLV, which stands on a mobile platform, will be wheeled on rail tracks to the launch pad, also called the umbilical tower, which is one km away. A powerful hydraulic bogey system will slowly pull the vehicle. The one-km journey will take two hours!
“The movement of the vehicle to the launch pad will take place on October 18. There will be minimum four days of work on the launch pad. The launch will take place on October 22 at 6.20 a.m., provided the weather supports us,” said M.C. Dathan, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
However, V. Krishnamurthy, the Range Safety Officer for the mission, is a confident man. “Rains do not matter. The launch vehicle is rain-proof. It can get drenched and we can still launch,” he asserted.
The PSLV had lifted off earlier when it was pouring over the island. Only a cyclone would pose a problem to the launch on time. Since this was the time when the north-east monsoon set in, Mr. Krishnamurthy said ISRO had formed a team of weather specialists who would be in Sriharikota six days before the launch.
Depending on their inputs, ISRO would take a decision on when to ignite the rocket.
Mission-life
Chandrayaan-1 will carry 730 kg of propellants. About 600 kg of these propellants will be used to put the spacecraft into lunar orbit at an altitude of 100 km. The spacecraft will have a mission-life of two years and use up 70 kg of propellants during this period, Mr. Prasad said.
Chandrayaan-1 has 11 scientific payloads — five from India and six from abroad. The payloads from abroad includes those from NASA, the European Space Agency and Bulgaria. The payloads will map the chemicals and minerals on the moon, and also prepare a 3-diemensional map of the entire lunar surface. The mission will also give clues on the early origin of the moon.
Mr. Prasad said, “We will be able to confirm whether there is water on the surface of the moon near the Poles with the help of the Chandrayaan mission.” Water on the moon was first identified by a NASA mission called Clementine. Based on that, NASA concluded that there could be a possibility of water in the moon’s South Pole, he added.
Moon Impact Probe
S. Satish, Director, Publications and Public Relations, ISRO, said an important Indian payload on the Chandrayaan-1 was the Moon Impact Probe (MIP). When the spacecraft reached the lunar orbit at an altitude of 100 km, the MIP would eject from Chandrayaan. As the MIP sped towards the moon’s surface, its video-camera would take pictures of the lunar surface. Its altimeter would measure the instantaneous altitude from the moon. A third instrument, a mass spectrometer, would sniff the tenuous atmosphere above the moon.
V. Seshagiri Rao, Deputy Director, Range Operations, Sriharikota, said each payload on the Chandrayaan, was subjected to different tests at Sriharikota. Experts sat in front of consoles and watched the differences in parameters when the payloads were tested. The tests related to solar panel deployment as well.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
INSTRUMENTS USED IN CHANDRAYAAN 1 MISSION
The scientific payload has a total mass of 90 kg and contains six Indian instruments and six foreign instruments.
- The Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) has 5 m resolution and a 40 km swath in the panchromatic band and will be used to produce a high-resolution map of the Moon.
- The Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI) will perform mineralogical mapping in the 400-900 nm band with a spectral resolution of 15 nm and a spatial resolution of 80 m.
- The Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) will determine the surface topography.
- An X-ray fluorescence spectrometer C1XS covering 1- 10 keV with a ground resolution of 25 km and a Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM) to detect solar flux in the 1–10 keV range. C1XS will be used to map the abundance of Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, and Fe at the surface,nd the XSM will monitor the solar flux. This payload is a collaboration between Rutherford Appleton laboratory, U.K, ESA and ISRO.
- A High Energy X-ray/gamma ray spectrometer (HEX) for 30- 200 keV measurements with ground resolution of 40 km, the HEX will measure U, Th, 210Pb, 222Rn degassing, and other radioactive elements
- Moon Impact probe(MIP) developed by ISRO is in turn a small satellite that will be carried by Chandrayaan-1 and will be ejected once it reaches 100 km orbit around moon, to impact on the moon. MIP carries three more instruments namely, a high resolution mass spectrometer, an S-Band altimeter and a video camera.
- Among foreign payloads, The Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SARA) from ESA will map composition using low energy neutral atoms sputtered from the surface
- The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) from Brown University and JPL (funded by NASA) is an imaging spectrometer designed to map the surface mineral composition.
- A near infrared spectrometer (SIR-2) from ESA, built at the Max PlancNK Institute for Solar System Research, Polish Academy of Science and University of Bergen, will also map the mineral composition using an infrared grating spectrometer. The instrument will be similar to that of the Smart-1 SIR.
- S-band miniSAR from the APL at the Johns Hopkins University (funded by NASA) is the active SAR system to map lunar polar ice. The instrument will transmit right polarized radiation with a frequency of 2.5 GHz and will monitor the scattered left and right polarized radiation. The Fresnel reflectivity and the cicular polarization ratio (CPR) are the key parameters deduced from this measurments. Ice shows the Coherent Backscatter Opposition Effect which results in an enhancement of refelections and CPR. With the data the water content of the moon polar region can estimated.[5]
- Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM-7) from Bulgaria is to map the radiation environment around the moon.
CHANDRAYAAN MISSION OBJECTIVES
Mission Objectives
- To carry out high resolution mapping of topographic features in 3D, distribution of various minerals and elemental chemical species including radioactive nuclides covering the entire lunar surface using a set of remote sensing payloads. The new set of data would help in unraveling mysteries about the origin and evolution of solar system in general and that of the moon in particular.
- Realize the mission goal of harnessing the science payloads, lunar craft and the launch vehicle with suitable ground support system including DSN station, integration and testing, launching and achieving lunar orbit of ~100 km, in-orbit operation of experiments, communication/telecommand, telemetry data reception, quick look data and archival for scientific utilization by identified group of scientists.
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