Presence of water in Moon path-breaking discovery: Nair

Describing the recent discovery of thick ice deposits on the Moon as path-breaking, former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said it opens up a vast avenue for human exploration.

“This is the first time NASA and ISRO have confirmed the availability of water on moon. Huge ice sheets were found in the polar regions of the moon. This is a path-breaking finding as it was earlier believed there was a vacuum in the moon,” Nair, during whose tenure unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan I was launched, said.

“The presence of water gives many ideas. Water can be split with sunlight to get oxygen and hydrogen. While oxygen can be used by human explorers, hydrogen can be used as fuel either to generate electricity or use as rocket fuel for the return journey or even attempt a Mars mission from the Moon,” he said.

Soon, an intelligence satellite

An intelligence satellite equipped with sensors to pick up conversations and detect espionage activities is being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), according to a top defence scientist.

The satellite, fitted with electronic sensors, will be more powerful than ISRO’s remote sensing satellites, a Defence Electronics and Research Laboratory (DLRL) official told presspersons on Tuesday. The official added that the Rs. 100-crore satellite will be launched in a lower earth orbit by a polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV), most likely in 2014.

DLRL will also install “electronic warfare sensors” for surveillance on the Indian borders in mountains and desert areas, the scientist said at a press meet to announce the first international conference on electronic warfare (EWCI 2010). “The electronic warfare (EW) sensor will be located on the mountain range facing Pakistan, China, Nepal and the northeast, to detect troop or vehicular movement across the borders,” he said. The electronic warfare system will be developed jointly by the Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) and DLRL, while Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) will manufacture the radars. BEL Director (R & D) I.V. Sarma said that in the next decade, the business potential for BEL is expected to grow to Rs. 22,500 crore for the manufacturing of electronic warfare systems for the Indian armed forces.

Two-day event

The two-day EWCI 2010 that begins on Wednesday is the first conference of its kind. It aims to provide a forum to discuss technical aspects of electronic warfare. The conference is organised by DARE and DLRL (under the aegis of DRDO), in association with BEL. The conference will address current and future needs of the operational users, planners, developers, procurers, testers and trainers of the latest electronic warfare technologies and systems.

Chandrayaan’s M3 discovers new lunar rock type

 

The Moon Minerology Mapper (M3) on Chandrayaan-1, which famously discovered the presence of water and hydroxyl molecules on the lunar surface material last year, has now identified a new lunar rock type on the far side of the moon. The M3 is a NASA instrument. This was reported here on Monday by Carle Pieters of Brown University, lead author of the present study, at the Sixth Chandrayaan-1 Science Meeting being held at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), a unit of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The rock-type is dominated by a mineral termed as ‘magnesium spinel.’ Spinel is a generic name given to a class of minerals having the chemical formula AB{-2}O{-4} and the usual spinel formations found in lunar rocks is an iron-magnesium admixture of the form (Mg, Fe)(Al, Cr){-2}O{-4}. These rocks are usually found along with magnesium-iron silicate (olivine) and calcium-rich aluminium silicate (pyroxene).

Unique feature

According to Professor Pieters, the interesting feature of the new rock type is that it is exclusively composed of magnesium-rich spinel “with no detectable pyroxene or olivine present.” This, she said, does not easily fit with current lunar crustal evolution models.

Rich in anorthosites

The generally accepted characterisation of the lunar crust is based principally on retrieved lunar material by the Apollo-Luna missions and meteorite samples. The crust is described as a rocky accumulation, basically rich in calcium-aluminium silicates (anorthosites) infused with a mix of compounds containing magnesium and iron (‘mafic’ minerals).

However, the western ring of the Moscoviense Basin of the moon appears to be one of the several discrete areas that exhibit unusual compositions relative to their surroundings, but without morphological evidence for separate geological processes leading to their exposure.

The findings are based on data acquired by M3 in January 2009 during the first observation period of Chandrayaan-1 from its initial 100 km altitude orbit over a 40 km wide strip field of view, with a spatial resolution of 140 m/pixel. The mapping was done using the emission spectrum of the surface over the wavelength region 460-3000 nanometres with a spectral resolution of 20-40 nm.

Five anomalous areas

The general composition of the area observed had a low abundance of mafic minerals and a high abundance of feldspathic minerals such as pyroxene. While this was consistent with earlier observations, five anomalous areas that are widely separated were seen along the lower elevations of the ring (see pic.). Interestingly, no unusual feature or any compositional boundary was seen for any of these areas.

Calcium-rich pyroxene is prominent in areas 2 and some parts of 3 and 4. Olivine is prominent across 5 and parts of 4. In contrast, the whole of region 1 and part of region 3 were exceptionally dark in the images. This, according to Professor Pieters, is because of the high absorption that the areas seem to have in the 2000 nm region, together with the near complete absence of pyroxene or olivine (less than 5 per cent) as indicated by the lack of any absorption around 1000 nm.

While regions rich in olivine or pyroxenes have been seen in other basins, this is the first time a magnesium-rich spinel region has been identified. “The clear interpretation of these spectra is that the surfaces represent a new rock type dominated by magnesium-rich spinel with no other detectable mafic minerals,” Professor Pieters said.

No easy explanation

There does not seem to be any easy explanation for the occurrence of these spinel formations. Since magnesium-spinels have been seen in some asteroids, one possible explanation is that the source is exogenous asteroid or comet impacts. However, there is no evidence of any impact or dispersion of rubble pile and the like from the impact’s aftermath.

An interesting feature of the Moscoviense Basin is that the crust in the region is much thinner, compared to other basins. This is indicative of a magma upturning over much recent time scales as compared to other regions. Also this offers one possible explanation for the occurrence of magnesium-rich minerals because these are very dense and would have been deposited right at the bottom during the cooling and crystallization of the crust. The recent upturning may have brought it up from the lunar deep crust during the basin formation, Professor Pieters pointed out.

Lunar crust origin

But that still does not explain the localised nature of the anomalous regions that extend only about a few kilometres across, she said. “Creating foreign deposits without a trace of their origin is hard to do. We, therefore, favour a lunar crust origin,” she said. “But even that interpretation is not entirely satisfactory. We need to fully characterise the morphology of the anomalous regions with high resolution data from TMC [ISRO’s Terrain Mapping Camera] images,” she added.

India to send two astronauts into space in 2016

India will launch its first manned mission in 2016 with two astronauts for a week-long odyssey in space, a top Indian space agency official said on Wednesday.

“We are planning a human space flight in 2016, with two astronauts who will spend seven days in the earth’s lower orbit,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman Dr. K. Radhakrishnan told reporters here.

Space scientists and senior officials of the state-run ISRO are preparing a pre-project report to build the infrastructure and facilities for the mission, estimated to cost a whopping Rs.124 billion ($2.76 billion).

The Planning Commission had in principle approved the human space flight project in February 2009. Its Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia then said more funds would be allocated in two phases during the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) and Twelfth Plan (2012-17).

“We will design and develop the space module for the manned mission in the next four years. Two astronauts will be selected to train for the space flight,” Mr. Radhakrishnan said on the margins of a space event.

The government had allocated Rs. 950 million (Rs.95 crore/$10 million) for pre-project initiatives in 2007-08.

The space agency will set up a full-fledged training facility in this tech hub for training the astronauts and building a third launch pad at its spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km northeast of Chennai.

“Spacecraft for the proposed manned mission will have extra facilities like entry into crew capsule and an escape chute,” the chairman said after releasing a book titled “Moon Mission: Exploring the Moon with Chandrayaan-1”.

The book was authored by S.K. Das, former member (finance) of the space department.

To demonstrate its re-entry technology prowess, ISRO had launched in 2007 a 600 kg space capsule recovery experiment (SRE) using the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) rocket and was successful in bringing it back to the earth safely 12 days later.

Will anyone dare audit the DRDO?

For a full 20 months now, the Defence Ministry has been sitting on two crucial recommendations of a committee on reforming defence procurement chaired by former Economic Advisor to the Finance Minister Vijay Kelkar. Not only have these not been made public, there’s been no action on any. It’s not difficult to understand why.

These two recommendations have to do with what is unspeakable at the Defence Research & Development Organisation: the need for an “independent audit” of its abysmal record of delay and waste in virtually all weapons programmes, as reported in the ongoing series in this newspaper.

Numbered 6.19 and 6.20 in the report, accessed by The Indian Express, the Kelkar panel, including scientists, officials of the three service chiefs and industry organisations, said that the Defence R&D Board, the apex review mechanism headed by the DRDO chief, should also include representatives from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

This, the Committee noted, was “in order to enable the Defence R&D Board to draw the expertise and experience from institutions falling outside the purview of defence.”

Second, the Kelkar Committee recommended that DRDO be periodically reviewed “for its functioning” by an independent high level committee and the first such review should be initiated in 2005. The reason: “DRDO has expanded considerably and tried to create in-house research facilities for all defence requirements. This, perhaps, is not a very cost-effective move…DRDO, as a research body has also not been reviewed by an external and independent group of experts”, a process the Kelkar Committee said would compel DRDO to “reform wherever necessary”.

Mars exploration by 2030, says ISRO Chief

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan has said that the exploration of Mars will take a tangible shape by the year 2030. He called it the “next logical frontier in space” after Chandrayaan II, which will be put in place by 2013 with robots and rovers to study the surface of the moon.

Speaking after receiving the prestigious ‘Dr. Y. Nayudamma memorial gold medal’ at the 2nd AP Science Congress, conducted jointly by the Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences and Sri Venkateswara University here on Saturday, Dr. Radhakrishnan spoke of ISRO’s latest initiative on interplanetary exploration and the study on ensuring human presence in solar system. A habitat would be developed on the Moon to function as an ‘intermediary point’ to study more and more on the planets beyond. Admitting that it was a challenging and daunting task, he observed that the whole world would be looking eagerly at the ambitious project.

ISRO was now keen on taking a giant step in meeting specific objectives by developing and launching mini and nano-satellites, weighing a mere 1 to 6 kg, he added.

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Radhakrishnan is new ISRO chief

 

K. Radhakrishnan (right), after assuming office as Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation on Oct. 31, 2009, handing over a traditional lamp to the outgoing ISRO chief, G. Madhavan Nair

 

K. Radhakrishnan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, took over as Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), from G. Madhavan Nair on Saturday. Dr. Radhakrishnan also assumed office as Chairman, Space Commission and Secretary, Department of Space. He has 38 years of experience in space technology, applications and space programme management. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from Kerala University and obtained his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He received his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 2000. He has been a Member of the Space Commission from October 2008.

Sixty-year old Dr. Radhakrishnan began his career when he joined the VSSC as an avionics engineer in 1971. Since then, he has held several posts such as Project Director for setting up Regional Remote-sensing Service Centres, Director of Budget and Economic Analysis for ISRO and Mission Director of Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development. He has had a short stint in the Ministry of Earth Sciences in 2004-2005 as the founder Director of Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and first Project Director of Indian National Tsunami Warning System. From 2005 to 2008, he was Director, National Remote-Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, which has now been renamed National Remote-Sensing Centre (NRSC).

When Dr. Radhakrishnan was Director, VSSC from 2007 to 2009, there were five successful launches of ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which totally put 20 spacecraft including Chandrayaan-1 into orbit.

During the tenure (September 2003 to October 2009) of outgoing ISRO Chairman, G. Madhavan Nair, there were 25 successful launch vehicle and spacecraft missions. The highpoint of his career was ISRO putting Chandrayaan-1, India’s first scientific mission to the moon, into orbit on October 22, 200

PTI reports from Thiruvanthapuram

Avionics expert K. Radhakrishnan today took over as the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from G. Madhavan Nair here.

A highly respected scientist with 35 years of experience in ISRO, 60-year-old Dr. Radhakrishnan has played a key role in many of the country’s space projects, including Chandrayaan—I.

“It is with high hopes and great expectations that I am taking over this responsibility. It is a huge task that has been entrusted on me. I am confident that we will be able to achieve our goals with the dedicated work and support of the entire team of ISRO,” he said after assuming charge.

Before his elevation as ISRO chief, Dr. Radhakrishnan was the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).

He joined the organisation in 1973 shortly after graduating in Electronic Engineering. He later pursued MBA from IIM Bangalore and a doctorate from IIT, Kharagpur.

He had served as Director, Regional Remote Sensing Service Centres, Director of Budget and Economic Analysis, Project Director of Early Warning System of Tsunami and Storm Surges.

Hailing from Irinjalakkuda in Thrissur district of Kerala, Dr. Radhakrishnan is also a keen enthusiast of classical arts and music. An ardent Kathakali fan, he had occasionally performed the dance, taking time off his busy schedule.

Meanwhile, senior ISRO scientist, P. S. Veeraraghavan, assumed charge as Director of VSSC.

Mr. Veeraraghavan had played an important role in major Indian space projects like PSLV and GSLV.

He has served ISRO in various capacities as director of Inertial Guidance Systems and Deputy Director of Mechanisms and Vehicle Integration at VSSC.

Pulicat Bird Sanctuary would be refurbished: Jairam Ramesh

The Hindu Unioin Minister for Environment and Forest, Jairam Ramesh seen disbursing bank loans to the tune of Rs.2.3 crs to DWCRA members at Tirupati on Monday. Photo: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

Good days seem to be ahead, at last for Pulicat lake and the bird sanctuary, the largest brackish water lagoon along the Bay of Bengal. Nestling as it does in the Chittoor-Nellore border at Sullurpet, 65 kms from Tirupati, it is a good feeding and breeding ground for the winged visitors like, flamingos, pelicans, painted starks besides providing the livelihood for thousands of families of fishermen in the surrounding habitats.The lake crying for attention looks set for an integrated development under the centrally sponsored scheme. Union Minister for Environment and Forest, Jairam Ramesh said that the central government which has taken up the integrated development of 25 lakes in the country would take up Pulicat lake also under the scheme and restore its past glory.

He complemented the Tirupati MP, Chintha Mohan for taking up the cause of the Pulicat lake and said that after Kolleru, Pulicat would be the second lagoon in Andhra Pradesh to get funds under the scheme.

Mr. Ramesh also cited in this connection the tourism corridor which the GoI is already developing, integrating 17 temples spread over Chittoor and Nellore districts to serve as a useful diversion for thousands that visited Tirupati for darshan from all over.

All praise for YSR

Jairam Ramesh was addressing the members of DWCRA groups at Tirupati after disbursing bank loans to a tune of Rs.2.3 crs to the beneficiaries. He was all praise for the late Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy for his range of pro-poor schemes and said that his flagship schemes — Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) and the ‘Pavala Vaddi’ schemes have become so popular that many states in the country started replicating them. under which loans were provided

The Union Minister said that Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh would be laying the foundation stone soon for the NTPC-BHEL Joint Venture unit at Mannavaram near Srikalahasti.

Visits NARL

The Minister who earlier visited the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Mr. Tirupati said that the laboratory established near here among others by ISRO as a joint facility for space-related programmes is a classic example of how science and spiritualism is intertwined in the Indian way of life.

He said that with the help of the Indian Network of Comprehensive Climate Change Admosphere (INCCCA) comprising 107 centres located at different parts, India was constantly monitoring the atmosphere and collecting data to study climate change.

A. Jayaraman, Director, NARL explained the working of national facility. Chintha Mohan, MP was also present.

ISRO competes with NASA?

Bangalore: It’s being said that Indian Space Agency ISRO is competing with NASA.  The recent success of Chandrayaan- 1mission on the moon has ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair in spot light.

The discovery of water on the surface of moon has pushed for further investigations into the same and there are a lot of expectations from the Chandrayaan-2 space mission scheduled for 2013.

While the media had written off the Chandrayaan-1 mission, NASA has applauded ISRO’s achievement for the same. This had made Nair more ambitious and hopeful for Chandrayaan-2.

He is all excited about it and says it will take him a good three years to decide and design everything before Chandrayaan-2 embarks upon yet another path-breaking discovery.

According to Nair, the latest space mission has opened up the arena for inter-planetary exploration. He is also hopeful of an international co-operation in space research from NASA for future space missions.

The Magic Of Chandrayaan

Chandrayaan is India’s first sole Moon mission ever. But it is significant not only in terms of India’s first steps on the Moon but also due to its staggering findings.

One of the most important is the one that proved there is water on that planet.

This country’s first solo mission is remarkable and meaningful as it was then that India’s first footprints appeared on the Moon. It also made several breakthrough discoveries.

It was found during the mission that the Moon generates water. It established that its rock like structures contain iron. And it proved that Apollo did exist.

Thus, the nest step in the Moon quest is to define whether it is suitable for habitation. As NASA recently implemented its plan about Moon surface bombing, it is to come up with new findings and detailed data on water probe. Chandrayaan found that water present on the planet has neither molecular nor moisture or gas form.

.ISRO to launch 16th remote satellite

.PSLV-C14 Successfully launches

 

.Chandrayaan-1 was a success: astronaut Mike Fincke

 

ISRO reveals why chandrayaan failed

2-year mission timeframe was premature

At at 0025 hours IST on Saturday the ISRO’s deep space network abruptly lost radio contact with Chandrayaan-1, India’s first moon mission satellite. All attempts to reestablish contact failed.

So what exactly went wrong with Chandrayaa? “We had to terminate the mission as we don’t have contact with the spacecraft. Though we are disappointed with what has happened, we have managed to salvage a large volume of data,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair said.

Earlier, M Annadurai, the Project Director of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, had stated that ISRO will conduct a detailed review of the telemetry data from Chandrayaan-1 to diagnonise the cause of the satellite’s malfunction. Accordint to preliminary reports, the critical star sensor of the Chandrayaan-1 along with the on board computers and antennae began to malfunction. Before it malfunctioned, Chandrayaan was orbiting 200 kms from the moon, the satellite will collide with the moon’s surface in about 1,000 days.

“Our expert team has come to a conclusion that it is not possible to restore the radio link, as the computers onboard the spacecraft for controlling the mission are non-functional for various reasons. Without the computers functioning, the mission cannot proceed,” Nair said, “the power signals which go to the computer systems failed and we had to terminate the mission.”

However the mission was largely successful as chandrayaan managed to record 95 percent of the desired data. “The moon mission was a great success and 95 per cent of its objective was completed. We could collect a large volume of data, including 70,000 images of the moon,” Nair said. According to ISRO director S Satish, Russian and American radars will be used to track Chandrayaan’s position and orbit. Satish admitted that the suggested two year was premature and that appropriate measures were taken so hat the spacecraft recorded the data ahead of its schedule. “None of the lunar missions has been for more than a year. Many of them last six-seven months whereas our mission lasted for about 10 months against heavy odds, including the hostile lunar environment, solar radiation and other variations in the space,” Satish said.

The moon mineralogy mapper, terrain mapping camera and hyper-spectral imager equipped on the Chandrayaan were very successful and raised the bar higher for scientific research in India. “We have achieved the engineering or technology objectives of the mission by flying the spacecraft 400,000 km to the moon, inserting it into the lunar orbit and placing the Indian tricolour on the lunar surface Nov 14 without hitch,” Nair noted.

ISRO director S Satish was upbeat about the results produced by Chandrayaan-1. “We have received excellent data from all the 11 instruments and the scientific community and the international agencies participating in the mission are very happy with the quality of the data,” Satish claimed.

India abandons satellite after losing contact with orbiting satellite

India’s space agency has abandoned the country’s only satellite orbiting the moon after efforts to revive communication with it failed, an official said Monday.

Communications with the Chandrayaan-1 satellite, which has been orbiting the moon for nearly a year, snapped Saturday and scientists lost control of the satellite. The space agency’s efforts to restore contact since then have failed, agency spokesman S. Satish told The Associated Press.

“The mission has been terminated,” Satish quoted G. Madhavan Nair, chief of the Indian Space Research Organization, as saying Sunday.

The space agency said it is investigating the communications failure.

The launch of Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 put India in an elite club of countries with moon missions. Other countries with similar satellites are the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China.

The agency plans to hold talks with the U.S. and Russian space agencies to track the satellite, which is now orbiting 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the surface of the moon, Satish said on Monday.

“Tracking of the spacecraft is of academic interest,” he said.

The $80 million lunar spacecraft has had problems in the past. In May, the satellite lost a critical instrument called the star sensor. Two months later, the spacecraft overheated but scientists were able to salvage the craft and resume normal operations.

The spacecraft had completed around 95 per cent of the two-year mission’s objectives, Satish said on Saturday.

Scientists say the Chandrayaan project will boost India’s capacity to build more efficient rockets and satellites, especially through miniaturization, and open research avenues for young Indian scientists.

India plans to follow the Chandrayaan, which means “moon craft” in Sanskrit, by landing a rover on the moon in 2011.

Space agency loses communication with India’s sole lunar satellite

India’s national space agency said communications with the country’s only satellite orbiting the moon snapped Saturday and that its scientists were no longer controlling the spacecraft.

FILE – In this Sept. 18, 2008 file photo, The Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft, India’s first unmanned mission to the Moon, is seen as it is unveiled at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Satellite…   (Associated Press)

Radio contacts with Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft were abruptly lost at 0130 Saturday (2000 GMT Friday), the Indian Space Research Organization said.

The agency’s monitoring unit near the southern city of Bangalore is no longer receiving data from the spacecraft, spokesman S. Satish told The Associated Press by telephone from Bangalore.

The spacecraft had completed 312 days in orbit and orbited the moon more than 3,400 times.

“We are studying the telemetry data and trying to figure out what is the problem,” Satish said. The space agency had received a large volume of data from the spacecraft _ which is slotted in an automatic orbit of the moon _ and most of the scientific objectives of the mission had been met, he said.

The spacecraft had been controlled from a monitoring center at Byalalu, 18 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Bangalore, sending it commands to change direction, speed and to focus the cameras. Satish said it was no longer receiving commands.

The launch of Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 put India in an elite club of countries with moon missions. Other countries with similar satellites are the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and China.

The US$80 million lunar spacecraft has had problems earlier too. In May, the satellite lost a critical instrument called the star sensor. Two months later, it overheated but scientists were able to salvage the craft and resume normal operations.

The spacecraft had completed around 95 per cent of the two-year mission’s objectives, Satish said Saturday.

Scientists say the Chandrayaan project will boost India’s capacity to build more efficient rockets and satellites, especially through miniaturization, and open research avenues for young Indian scientists.

India plans to follow the Chandrayaan, which means “moon craft” in Sanskrit, by landing a rover on the moon in 2011.

Chandrayaan-1 Rescued from Failure

The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, India’s moon orbiting satellite was almost lost earlier this year, Indian Space Research Organization revealed, as the star tracking system overheated and malfunctioned. The system helps determine and maintain the spacecraft’s orientation. Engineers were able to patch in the gyroscopes and another instrument to help maneuver the spacecraft, but they are not sure how long this jury-rigged system will work. At this point, determining the spacecraft’s future might be difficult, and differing statements from various officials reflect that.

“We are not sure how long we will be able to sustain it. The life of Chandrayaan-I designed for two years may be reduced,” said ISRO spokesman S. Satish.

ISRO chief Madhavan Nair said the star tracking system cannot be recovered, but he dismissed suggestions that the sensor’s failure might reduce the life span of the spacecraft.

“The life (of the spacecraft) is not dependent on this instrument. This instrument is used only for orientation of the spacecraft,” he said. “The sensor cannot be recovered at this stage and we hope that the remaining part of this mission will be completed.”

Chandrayaan-1 launched in October 2008 and suffered from overheating shortly after it began operations in lunar orbit in November, but the ISRO was able to change the spacecraft’s orientation and cut down on the amount of time the instruments were used to compensate.

In May 2009, however, officials unexpectedly raised the orbit of the spacecraft. At that time officials said they had completed mission objectives from 100 km above the moon and raised the height of the spacecraft to 200 km to enable imaging lunar surface with a wider swath. But reports say that May is when the star tracker system malfunctioned, as well.

Nair said the star sensor is suspected to have failed because of “excessive radiation” from the Sun. He said gyroscopes are not susceptible for the kind of radiation that the sensor was subjected to. “So, we hope it will survive the remaining mission duration”.

He added more than 90 percent of the two-year mission’s objectives have already been achieved.

ISRO Scientists hope the Chandrayaan project will boost India’s capacity to build more efficient rockets and satellites, especially through miniaturization, and open research avenues for young Indian scientists. India plans to follow the Chandrayaan, which means “moon craft” in Sanskrit, by landing a rover on the moon in 2011.

India’s First Moon Mission Chandrayaan – 1 called off

Bangalore: Breaking News! Putting all speculations into rest, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has called off India’s dream first-ever moon mission, Chandrayaan – 1, after it lost the radio contact with the spacecraft yesterday at 1.30 AM. The mission was terminated after the ISRO failed to establish contacts with Chandrayaan 1 despite several attempts.

ISRO Chief G Madhavan Nair confirmed the above news and said that Chandrayaan 1 was a great success and it completed 95 per cent of its objective. “We succeeded in collecting a large volume of data, including 70,000 images of Moon”, he said.

The Chandrayaan – 1 is still hovering at 200 kms from the surface of the moon and would take 1,000 days to reach the lunar surface. However, it won’t be able to send any signal or data to earth.