RussianSpaceWeb has reported that the possible landing sites for Chandrayaan-II called Luna-Resurs by the Russians have been selected. The selection is not final and seems to have been made (or covers only the Russian angle of the story) by Russian space organizations.
There is a detailed account of the selected landing sites for Chandrayaan-II here: http://www.russianspaceweb.com/luna_resurs_landing.html
Pradeep
Thanks, Pradeep!
South polar region, huh? Interesting! There's some pretty rough terrain down there, though the planners seem well aware of it based on the article.
Much more info on site selection here. Chandrayaan 2 is called Luna-Resurs (Moon Resource) in Russia, and it's one of a pair of missions, the other called Luna-Glob. Luna-Resurs was supposed to fly in 2013 but may be delayed into 2014 by Indian issues, mainly with the launch vehicle, I believe. Luna-Glob will launch a year later. LR goes to the south, LG to the north. Now that they have found hydrogen in illuminated areas as well as permanent shadows the whole question of studying it is much easier, so the sites are no longer very close to the poles.
This link goes to an intro page from which you can link to numerous presentations, most of them in English. Thanks to our Russian colleagues for making them available.
Phil
http://www.iki.rssi.ru/eng/conf/2011-lg/index.html
I am resurrecting this ancient thread because, after a long wait, Chandrayaan 2 will soon be launched to the Moon.
The links above give some information on very early thoughts about this mission, which was to be a joint India-Russia flight. The Russians called the mission Luna-Resurs (resources), and they would provide a lander and in some versions of it, a rover as well. India provided an orbiter and a mini-rover as well as a launch. Later the Russians pulled out and India took over all aspects of the mission.
The site selection work described above went through multiple phases in Russia. When India took over they did some of their own work on site selection. See this report from LPSC in 2015:
https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2015/pdf/1351.pdf
Some work has been done since by two groups that I am aware of, but I am waiting for a paper release before I can say more. Don't pay too much attention to press reports which are almost always out of date.
The rover mission is only intended to survive one lunar day, and its activities will be recorded here.
Phil
Some landing site news:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/01/india-plans-tricky-and-unprecedented-landing-near-moon-s-south-pole
This article says that the site will be on a "plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N, at a latitude of about 70° south", in other words here:
Thanks, Phil...have added a http://the-moon.wikispaces.com/Chandrayaan-2 page for such.
John Moore
I can confirm there will be new details at LPSC... plus a whole lot on Chinese sites.
Phil
Cheers. Phil...the LPSC abstracts are never short of wonderful disclosures - particularly, concerning research about the Moon. So much appreciation to YOU for the updates and links.
A https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2018/pdf/1975.pdf (PDF file) - east of Klaproth A (68.2S, 21.84W), that may be another area for the upcoming mission - if announced in the https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2018/
John Moore
Yes - here is the location of that site - in the white box.
Phil
http://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/?layers=NrBsFYBoAZIRnpEoAsjZwLpNKG%2BscB2fDbMADlPnNAE5rDgjZWakiE2mAmOuqt3J9%2BjTOKQ9QPRkmBSuBcgGZoPQUskVVYicDhwo3OQbRCkBkueCroisls5iLO63GX32%2B5cufe8bspWmt4M1urKMuEURFEhcChsDvIU9LoqPHEYcpGeWHqqymGkAHRQIKqJ6UiFZqXlNtDKRkoFTb7GFWrFrGUqTUkwfTVNntDDjZHU4%2BDiKtKyFaBjJTyzNaAd9fN1ves2ENN9bcoaezlNAdsjQUezBUS7iBVEW72G-TxP4x8ja0e-RpSAH7VQ8YLve4qIhXbIvFrJIJnLxBHooiiDJinPIqChZdFvdFPfLkRKYnKiaxgwlYtT4kkbCHPA6wlGgZG8GKY%2BZorEsPxBHE1WLVYAoL6LMU8QnjZSk-5JEpypDi1njOhzFXgGlyFDgemk8AIoZQkZwXkXaCs2nQYn9JoC6BOvz67laTZ%2BdSHaKoT2pa3CVIczXAcCGAjMsNoRRMMNM2NwYNIMO88j6lZENOZI6Z93x%2B0GkbQY0kzBAA&extent=-35.998326197833705%2C-70.70532958679142%2C18.47328720965808%2C-49.56957241261599&camera=589275.3966559898%2C-90829.97348161641%2C-1727956.447128716%2C5.469221050470949%2C-0.6318525454154313%2C6.283185307133074&proj=22
Phil, Seán...very nice, different perspectives.
Looking forward to the mission.
John Moore
The Chandrayaan 2 launch is postponed until October. That may mean that it and Chang'E 4 will be driving around on the Moon at the same time, keeping any lunar cartographers out there pretty busy.
Phil
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-s-second-lunar-mission-to-land-on-moon-with-lander-rover-isro/story-vqoGvAyk6hHuUL4SDa17GJ.html
Launch will now be no earlier than 3 January 2019, and the lander has been named Vikram after V. A. Sarabhai, regarded as the initiator of the Indian space program. No word I am aware of concerning a name for the rover.
Phil
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/chandrayaan-2-several-challenges-to-meet-jan-2019-deadline/articleshow/65945202.cms
description of changes to Chandrayaan 2, which leaves me concerned that more testing might be needed and could lead to further delays. I hope everything will be OK. I would not want to see a premature launch just to meet a schedule.
Phil
Chandrayaan-2 launch now NET May.
https://www.asianage.com/science/010419/isro-to-launch-pslvc-46-followed-by-pslvc-47-chandrayaan-2-in-may-k-sivan.html
Thorsten
Another month, another date: mid-July.
https://twitter.com/isro/status/1123612384336027650
And that tweet has a name for the rover, Pragyan, meaning Wisdom according to Wikipedia, or Knowledge according to New Delhi TV.
Phil
India's Chandrayaan 2 lunar mission to the Moon has successfully launched today, 22 July 2019 (at 0913 GMT) from its space centre in Sriharikota, near the Bay of Bengal.
Already having separated from its launcher's second stage and now in Earth orbit, Chandrayaan 2 is expected to touchdown on the lunar South Pole some time in early September 2019.
The mission includes both a lander and rover (also with an orbiter overhead); where all three include various research instruments (13 of Indian, 1 of NASA) used in areas, for example:
looking for water and minerals signatures, and the study of moonquakes and possible future landing sites...amongst other activities. The orbiter has eight instruments, the lander with
four (including the NASA instrument), while the rover has the remaining two.
On touchdown, the solar-powered rover will off-load from the lander after some four hours, where it will then mainly rove around the surface during lunar day-long (14 earth days) stints.
Finally they're on their way.
Lunar Landing is expected Sept 7 at 2:50 AM Indian Standard Time or Sept 6 at 21:20 UT.
Friday evening for Europe, afternoon for America.
Here is a set of 'finder' maps for the primary landing site and the alternative site.
Phil
Just querying: while during the long, lunar day (14 earth days) stints that the Chandrayaan 2 rover (Pragyan) is expected to undergo near/below the 70.0s degree South Pole environment, will
the different, southerly periodic lighting conditions, let alone the temperatures changes, affect the amount of days that the rover can rove (I'm thinking that the various powering down/up
periods might be shorter: simply due to less illumination time on the solar panels at such latitudes, but then, do the lower temperature differences, lighting conditions counteract such - allow longer exploration times).
John
Gratz to ISRO on a successful launch.
Perhaps the 'noon naps' that Yutu has been commanded to do to avoid overheating might not be necessary, if the sun never gets too high above the horizon?
I'm certainly looking forward to surface images, both in terms of long shadows and Earth near the horizon....
The amount of solar radiation that the panels receive will depend upon the angle between the panels and the Sun. The angle of the ground to the Sun is irrelevant. The imagery I see online indicates that the solar panels are not horizontal, so I presume that they will be oriented for better energy production.
Hi all!
Some thoughts:
"Noon naps" (here in Spain: siesta) are probably not necesary, because the sun never rises more than 20deg above the horizon. This keeps the surface temperature rather low.
Thermodynamic equilibrium:
- Max. solar irradiation on horizontal surface: 1367W/m² x cos(70°) = 470W/m²
- Thermal reradiation: 470 = 5.67e-8 x T^4
=> Noon-Temperature T = 301K = 28°C (like here last night )
This is approximately, no reflection of sunlight or emittance of IR <1 was included.
But in any case, not as hot as on other places.
At the time of landing, the terminator is at 0deg longitude. The landing site is at 23°E, this means that at this site, the sun is already 1.5 Earth-days up. This has to be taken into account when somebody speaks about "14-Earth days operation time". It will be not more than 12.5 Earth days. If they achieve night survival, then it will be more of course. (This does not take into account possible "seasonal effects". As the Moon's axis is tilt only 1.5° vs the ecliptic, this is normally negligible, but not when coming close to a pole. 70°S is not yet close enough to be important, but I wouldn't be surprised if they could win (or loose) another half a Earth-day or so. And, of course!, terrain also matters! If there's a small hill in the west, the sunset might be significantly earlier.)
If somebody wants to do detailed calculations, this great page helps: https://trek.nasa.gov/moon/index.html
The solar panels of the lander and the rover are mostly vertical. As far as I can see on the photos, neither panel is steerable.
The lander has one side (I suppose this will face south) with the rover and without solar panels, another two sides (I suppose facing east and west) with solar panels, and one side (I suppose facing north) that's never visible in the photos, so I don't know what's there. Hopefully another solar panel. If not, they will have a hard time around local noon.
The lander has one solar panel that can be flipped to vertical, but doesn't seem to be steerable! This means that the lander should always move or at least park in a sun facing direction! Remember, over the lunar day, the sun will move in the sky from east (at the horizon) to north (elevation <20°) to west (again at the horizon).
I wonder how they will manage the landing on a safe spot. The sun is very low during landing, and the shadows will be very long. A system like the one used by Cháng'é-3 and 4 (imaging, terrain recognition) will probably have a hard time to work.
Shadows, yes, it will be interesting to see how they will hamper (or not?) the navigation of the rover.
Somebody knows what capabilities they have to detect water?
I don't expect it directly on the surface, but not too many cm below, there might be traces.
Now let's cross fingers that they are successful with the flight and the landing. This place will give a first small hint about how the conditions on the real pole might be.
Regards
Thorsten
While fully admitting to not understanding the temperature/power complexities of sunlight falling on the lander and rover solar panels at such extreme latitudes, your description, Thorsten, is wonderful. Thanks
John
Note that the lander and rover are not expected to survive the lunar night. Their mission will last one lunar daytime, 14 Earth days, according to mission materials. I'm a little confused by this number because I can't imagine a successful landing during the very twilit high-southern-latitude dawn; it seems to me they'll have to land under relatively high sun conditions. But that's speculation on my part.
The statement is ambiguously worded, but I think they are saying 'the lander and rover will last for one lunar day' and 'one lunar day is 14 Earth days'. I saw it said somewhere that the landing is about 36 hours after sunrise, so you are quite right that the actual surface missions must be shorter. We can probably expect a maximum of 12 days operation. We had better hope a noon siesta is not required!
Phil
Thanks, I had missed that detail. I'm still impressed by a landing 36 hours after sunrise at that latitude!
The Chadrayaan-2 mission seems to be proceeding according to plan, the probe having successfully completed all the Earth orbit raising manoeuvres on August 6. The next orbital change is the trans-lunar injection, scheduled for August 14.
Here is a comparison table for the attained and planed orbits.
Success for Lunar Tranfer Trajectory:
https://www.isro.gov.in/update/14-aug-2019/chandrayaan-2-successfully-enters-lunar-transfer-trajectory
Here is an updated table with the latest information.
Fernando
https://www.isro.gov.in/update/20-aug-2019/chandrayaan-2-update-lunar-orbit-insertion
Lunar orbit!
Phil
https://www.isro.gov.in/sites/default/files/presentation_moon_photo1.png
First image of the Moon, with the Orientale basin at the top and north at upper left.
Phil
Well, looks like all went well on the fifth manoeuvre, 1 Sept, 2019, and also an update, 2 Sept, 2019, on the successful separation of the Vikram Lander (with the Pragyan rover onboard) from the orbiter.
Below image (Credit: ISRO): a tentative plan over the next few days up to the 7 Sept, 2019...when India's engineers' nerves will undoubtedly be fraying towards a successful landing.
John
The Vikram lander has reached its final orbit (35 x 101 km) before its descent to the Lunar surface (scheduled for Sept. 7).
https://www.isro.gov.in/chandrayaan2-latest-updates
The sun is about to rise on the landing site, and the high resolution camera on the orbiter is supposed to image the site for final site planning. The resolution will be about 30 cm/pixel, better than a standard 50 cm/pixel LROC NAC image and almost as good as the low altitude images (25 cm/pixel) NAC obtained over several of the Apollo sites. It will be great to see the site before and after landing with this camera, and really nice to see images of other sites with the same camera if they are taken. For instance, LRO images of the Chang'e 4 site are about 1 m/pixel, so this camera might give us 3x better resolution. I hope the camera team plan images of other sites at that resolution.
Phil
Below, an approximate render of the lighting conditions of the 6 Sept, 2019 (round 6.00 pm UTC )…for successful landing of Vikram. Simpelius N and Manzinus C, lie roughly at the centre of the ellipse.
John
At this moment, Vikram will start the descending trajectory shortly.
Live feeds not looking good; it seems the lander deviated from its trajectory in the final moments of the descent a few minutes ago. No downlink
A steeper inclination than the planned trajectory indicates some failure propulsion along without a downlink signal. I am afraid that Vikram has not landed as planned, softly. The last info from the panel was that its altitude was 1 km above the surface at 59 m/s (an acceptable landing speed must not be greater than 15 m/s). The people from the operation center are uneasy trying to figure out this incident.
Rough luck, that. Space is hard! Hope ISRO can swiftly recover from this failure.
India Today's live feed reporting that all was well up to an altitude of 2.1 kilometres. Communication was lost after that. Sounds like the issue was to do with the 'fine braking' phase - a misfiring or failed engine, perhaps?
Aaaaaaah....damn.
My most sincere sympathies to the Chandrayaan II team. There is absolutely nothing easy nor routine about landing on another world. This was a truly brilliant & ambitious effort, and though lessons learned are always painful they are always invaluable as the only real way forward to new futures.
What problem coincidence of Vikram with the ones of Israeli Moon lander Beresheet.
Many congratulations to the Chandrayaan team for an excellent first attempt -- surely not the last from India.
Meanwhile the orbiter continues its scientific mission...
Very sad outcome but a great effort, and a lot will be learned from it. Meanwhile, as already said, a good orbiter mission to come. I look forward to seeing the site from orbit, but meanwhile here is an updated landing sites map.
Phil
The last two failed landing attempts really puts into context the genius of the Surveyor and Luna landing teams half a century ago using computer rooms and slide rulers. A real shame and just illustrates how unforgiving space can be.
Well said, Steve.
The live coverage included glimpses of this image:
If this is accurate... https://mobile.twitter.com/ANI/status/1170610654232731648
... then the lander may be more-or-less intact, depending on the image resolution. A bad landing, as opposed to a crash, perhaps. That might be of some comfort to the ISRO team ifso.
https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/isro-finds-lander-vikram-exact-location-1596857-2019-09-08
The word from The Times of India is that Vikram is on the Lunar soil in one piece, but tilted on its side and possibly (probably imho) damaged after a hard landing. Even if it's functional there's a good chance the angle it's at will prevent communication, but the ISRO team will keep trying for the rest of the lunar day. Still, it looks like this was a hard but controlled landing, not a crash, and I think it's safe to say that Vikram fought right to the end. The ISRO team can be proud of their work, and the design is clearly up to the job - once whatever bug caused the hard landing is located and ironed out
https://m.timesofindia.com/india/isro-not-losing-hope-continues-to-make-all-out-efforts-to-restore-link-with-lander-vikram/articleshow/71045854.cms
Edit:: India Today's report is that the lander is not confirmed as 'intact', although I wonder if some ambiguity of translation isn't creeping in here: "In one piece" could mean one pile of bits all in one spot, or one very oblate piece. It'd be tempting to translate that as 'intact' but optimistic... Still, my statements on the ISRO team stands, even if it turn s out to be one big metal pancake.
https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/chandrayaan-2-lander-vikram-intact-moon-isro-says-not-confirmed-1597265-2019-09-09
It might have had a similar fate as Luna 23 in 1974 which had a hard landing and tipped over. Intact, but loss of mission.
Yes... we could be in for a long period of argument as to whether it should count as a landing or an impact.
Meanwhile, this tweet is interesting:
---------------------------------
Ryan Watkins @Ryan_N_Watkins
official word is that @LRO_NASA will take an image of the Vikram landing site on September 17th. The incidence angle is pretty high, so it may be hard to see (could be in shadow).
#VikramLander #Chandrayaan2 @isro
---------------------------------
(Ryan is a researcher at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson)
LRO is orbiting close to the terminator at the moment. As it crosses the landing site each month over the next few months the Sun will be higher and the view better.
Phil
According to Wikipedia, the Chandrayaan II orbiter camera has a spatial resolution of 0.3 m from 100 km polar orbit, while the LRO camera is said to have a maximum resolution of 50 cm/pixel. If these figures are correct, is there any reason to hope the LRO images will be any better than the ones from the Chandrayaan II orbiter?
There is the possibility that we may get to see the LRO images before we do the Chandrayaan 2 ones! ISRO, love you, but I've been spoiled by the relative hosepipe of data and images NASA prefers, as opposed to the more cautious approach.
The 50 cm pixel resolution for LRO's Narrow Angle Camera is based on its altitude, nominally 50 km for its main mission period. They have dropped to 25 km for high resolution imaging of Apollo sites (25 cm per pixel), but now they are in a low-maintenance orbit to extend operational life, and they are higher up: approx. 50 km at the south pole, 200 km at the north pole. Most images of the Chandrayaan 2 site now available are about 100 cm/pixel.
Chandrayaan 2's high resolution camera has 30 cm/pixel resolution from 100 km altitude. I would expect that C2 images could be 3 times better than any LRO images we are likely to see.
Phil
Below, an overhead, animated attempt of the impact/hard-landing site (approximately at centre of Manzinus D), if indeed that is the actual site: showing the lighting/shadow conditions from 17 Sept., 12:00 noon UTC to 18 Sept., 12:00 noon UTC (note, libration effects have been removed simply for visualization).
John
https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/india/chandrayaan-2-isro-racing-against-time-to-salvage-lander-rover-part-of-mission-1.66335279?fbclid=IwAR2Toe68CMZw7tvRKsF1Q2uBjUbs8T9EgdnPtvFeDPu9Qnxd8t7vY2-79Q0
A senior Isro official associated with the mission said: “The images from the orbiter camera showed that Vikram is in single piece lying on the lunar surface; not broken into pieces. It is in a tilted position. It’s not in its four legs, as usual.”
This official added on condition of anonymity: “It’s not upside down. It’s lying on its side”.
Isro officially did not comment on the condition of the lander.
Chandrayaan-2 comprises an orbiter, lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan).
The mission life of the lander and rover is one lunar day, which is equal to 14 earth days.
Additional location information from the above ref. ...
"An Isro official said Vikram hit the lunar surface at a place about 500 metres away from where it was originally planned to touchdown. "
So, the site is roughly between Manzinus C and Simpelius N.
John
Images from most recent LRO pass have been released.
https://www.lroc.asu.edu/posts/1128
This thread is getting out of control with Chandrayaan-1 MIP discussion. IMHO most of the recent posts should be moved to http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=2686
Mike is right. It's my fault, as I looked at the other thread and it had not been updated for 7 years, but I only expected 2 or 3 posts on the subject. Now I think there is a lot more to say on the subject and this is the wrong place for it.
A new thread might be good, but moving to the old thread would be fine too.
Phil
C-1 MIP impact site posts http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=2686 per request. Good call.
As this 'U-type' feature showed up (during a blink-comparison technique) not far from the possible/proposed Vikram site (rectangle), I'll throw it out there (some small craters visible in the hig-rez below, may be responsible for the effect).
But, these are shadowed times, and as everyone knows, such can change the look of a smooth, slightly-undulated terrain in to one unrecognisable, so take it with a pinch of salt. The second image is an extreme close-up of the feature mentioned.
John
In the LROC pictures I browsed through, found some interesting braided terrain in the Chandrayaan 2 lander search area.
That is formed by a spray of ejecta falling on the surface, lots of small bits together rather than one big chunk forming a secondary crater. It is a common feature, but the low relief hardly shows up in higher sun angle images.
Phil
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=6862&view=findpost&p=245700
Made a cross-view of planned primary landing site based on above.
Thanks, i always enjoy these. I rotated each 180 to reduce headache. If you dont already use http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/index.html youll find it very useful
Few images from OHRC at last but not of impact site unfortunately.
https://www.isro.gov.in/update/04-oct-2019/chandrayaan2-images-orbiter-high-resolution-camera
Thanks for finding the images.
Here is some news about the SAR on Chandrayaan 2:
https://www.isro.gov.in/update/22-oct-2019/initial-imaging-and-observations-chandrayaan-2-dual-frequency-synthetic-aperture
Phil
Latest on the LRO search for Vikram is that the new imaging this month also failed to spot the lander.
https://www.indiatoday.in/science/story/chandrayaan-2-vikram-lander-not-found-new-nasa-photos-moon-landing-site-1612124-2019-10-23
Shadows are invoked again, but my feeling is that the lander crashed further from the target than expected and is not in the imaged area, which appears to be looking at the landing target. I have not yet seen a detailed analysis of the expected impact location, but if Vikram was tumbling and thrusting after loss of contact, as seems to be suggested in some reports, it could be off top the side of the groundtrack a bit more than expected.
Phil
It appears there is no coordination on search for impact location.
https://www.space.com/india-moon-lander-not-found-by-nasa.html
May be they are being coy on location information to get some science done first and fast.
http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2019/sep/18/chandrayaan-2-hard-landing-of-vikram-to-help-orbiter-look-for-water-on-moon-says-isro-2035311.html
As it is very hard to find the lander Vikram after one month, I am supposing that Vikram didn't impact so hard and its impact footprint will not show any burned pieces due to the combustion which facilities the probability to spot it due to the change of the color of the surface. The other possibility is that the lander is laid on the side and reduce its shadow.
Top: An aerial view of the lighting conditions for when LRO passed over the 'Vikram' site today, 11 Nov, 2019 at 1:21:04 UTC (note, these are approximate calculations, so apologies, if incorrect).
Bottom: An 24-hour (11/11/2019 to 11/12/2019) graphic view of LRO's increasing altitude (note, sometimes American versus European date descriptions are published differently, however, in this
case, the format is Month/Day/Year).
LRO's orbital track is moving westwards, the site is becoming evermore brighter (terminator movement), as the Sun steadily climbs overhead.
John Moore
Updates related to CHACE-2 and TMC-2 on orbiter
https://www.isro.gov.in/update/31-oct-2019/detection-of-argon-40-lunar-exosphere
https://www.isro.gov.in/update/13-nov-2019/topographic-mapping-using-tmc-2-of-chandrayaan-2-initial-results
Apparently they are working out another attempt at landing before November 2020 with a lander/rover configuration and a detachable propulsion module.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/chandrayaan-3-second-bid-to-land-on-moon-by-november-2020/articleshow/72047390.cms
They found it!
http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1131
Here it is on https://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/query?extent=22.6172488,-70.9288302,22.9138315,-70.8520346&proj=17&features=22.78110000,-70.90267000%7C22.67614545,-70.66505312,22.59602674,-70.68567374,22.47404942,-70.73985102,22.41186851,-70.81152910,22.37729450,-70.90503611,22.39786447,-70.96649012,22.44897667,-71.03179022,22.49475155,-71.06875459,22.55335003,-71.10391166,22.66112520,-71.13706952,22.78284794,-71.15270805,22.90395627,-71.13943872,23.00991370,-71.10391180,23.07951916,-71.07113016,23.11649306,-71.03492583,23.16767306,-70.97185758,23.19380184,-70.90378735,23.16174278,-70.82041445,23.08489490,-70.74625635,22.96500141,-70.68691309,22.88051038,-70.66585094,22.77779645,-70.65721583,22.67614545,-70.66505312%7C22.78110000,-70.89992000%7C22.78085353,-70.89972614,22.78733747,-70.90007004,22.78681751,-70.90184907,22.78037202,-70.90153733,22.78085353,-70.89972614%7C22.78400000,-70.88100000&selected=4&layers=NrBsFYBoAZIRnpEoAsjZwLraeOUNEQBmOOY9ebbIA
Edit: The person credited in press release for helpful inputs is https://twitter.com/Ramanean
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/isro-plays-down-chennai-techies-spotting-of-vikram-lander/articleshow/72357057.cms
Reaction in India to the finding.
I feel like I ought to say: In a time when scientific research and the value of scientific thinking are under attack ISRO have behaved very irresponsibly with how they've shared information, giving the impression that they've put the truth as a lower priority than saving face. I'll not comment on the matter again here, and it is definitely my opinion only.
Recently we had 4 attempts, CNSA chang e'3 on 14/dec/13 succesfull, CNSA chang e'4 on 3/jan/19, SpaceIL beresheet on 11/apr/19, Chandrayaan on 06/set/2019.
The last two atempts were unsuccesfull on the same stage, at the landing aproach, they are extremelly important to the learn process and improvement of the next ones. But its information need to be shared, otherwise it will have much less relevance.
Nasa LROC images will contribute a lot to fill this gap.
WRT the crash, the LROC images show some debris scattered back along the ground track at quite a distance. Given the (very likely) angle and velocity of the impact this doesn't seem very strange to me - my layman's knowledge and reading is that hypervelocity impacts will produce a more or less even debris field around the impact unless the angle of impact is very, very low. But on other forums this seems to be a topic under discussion - how anything could be scattered the opposite way to the direction of the ground track. Given the concentration of expertise here I was wondering if anyone here found it unusual?
There is stored energy in form of propellant and pressurant on lander which could eject debris in random direction. Could it be that anomaly occurring ~2 km above surface was severe enough to generate some debris before impact? For example lander during reconfiguration was attached with an extra solar panel that jutted out towards front.
Thanks. That seems possible, but I'm not sure I understand why that's needed as an explanation - from the publicly available data I've seen the impact velocity was at least 50m/sec, the impact angle was at least 45 degrees... none of that seems inconsistent with the idea that debris could be scattered back along the ground track to me, I'm just wondering if I'm missing something wrt why it's even coming up as a topic of discussion in the wider internet.
Few official papers detailing CY-2 payloads.
Current Science, Volume 118 - Issue 1 (10 January 2020)
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/php/toc.php?vol=118&issue=01
Solar X-ray Monitor onboard Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/01/0045.pdf
Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer onboard Chandrayaan-2 Rover
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/01/0053.pdf
and
Current Science, Volume 118 - Issue 2 (25 January 2020)
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/php/toc.php?vol=118&issue=02
CHandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 onboard Chandrayaan-2 to study the lunar neutral exosphere
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/02/0202.pdf
Dual Frequency Radio Science experiment onboard Chandrayaan-2: a radio occultation technique to study temporal and spatial variations in the surface-bound ionosphere of the Moon
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/02/0210.pdf
Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/02/0219.pdf
L and S-band Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar on Chandrayaan-2 mission
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/02/0226.pdf
In other news Chandayaan-3 has been approved aiming for 2021 and they finally have heart to accept reality of lander crash.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/jan/01/isro-finally-admits-to-chandrayaan-2s-lander-vikram-lying-on-moon-in-pieces-2083739.html
More payload write-ups.
Current Science, Volume 118 - Issue 4 (25 February 2020)
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/php/toc.php?vol=118&issue=04
Current Science, Volume 118 - Issue 3 (10 February 2020)
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/php/toc.php?vol=118&issue=03
Terrain Mapping Camera-2 onboard Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter. (TMC-2)
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/04/0566.pdf
Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope on Chandrayaan-2 Rover: a miniaturized mid-UV to visible active spectrometer for lunar surface chemistry studies. (LIBS)
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/04/0573.pdf
Orbiter High Resolution Camera onboard Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter. (OHRC)
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/04/0560.pdf
Imaging Infrared Spectrometer onboard Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter. (IIRS)
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/03/0368.pdf
Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity Studies on Chandrayaan-2 Lander. (ILSA)
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/03/0376.pdf
Lunar near surface plasma environment from Chandrayaan-2 Lander platform: RAMBHA-LP payload
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/118/03/0383.pdf
Chandrayaan-2 six month data release for seven instruments.
https://www.isro.gov.in/update/24-dec-2020/chandrayaan-2-mission-initial-data-release
Are there images of the Vikram site? And some of us will be hoping for images of the MIP site near the south pole.
Please post anything interesting that you find.
Phil
Hmmm... so which image was the one said to show Vikram landed intact but on its side, as reported just after the landing attempt? Not one of these.
Phil
I've managed to have some success in Photoshop with the OHRC images. Choose 'Open As' and 'Photoshop RAW', then use the values in the accompanying XML file under '<Array_2D_Image>' for the height and width. 8-bit seems to be the option that works. I found the location of one of the files in the LRO quickview map and the detail was much better than the LRO image (at least in the Quickview map).
Hopefully they can throw some more out soon.
By way of comparison, this is just a completely random section of one of the OHRC images (left), with a screenshot from the same area of the LRO quickmap (right). I haven't adjusted the OHRC image in any way. Distance across the image is about 250m.
A new image from Chandrayaan-2 OHRC has been released in response to a Right To Information query (bit like FOIA requests). ISRO claims it to be Vikram's "landing site" post landing attempt.
https://old.reddit.com/r/ISRO/comments/lfdo0z/image_of_crashed_vikram_lander_and_names_of/
Hi, Ohsin. I can't see the images in this link - is it possible to post them directly here?
Phil
Thank you! That is very useful. It enables this comparison with the post-impact LRO image from this site:
http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/1131
Has anyone had any success with Chandrayaan-2's orthographic/DTM combination, in terms of 3D imagery?
I've produced 3D models in the past with other missions with QGIS, but the 3D plugin just doesn't want to play. I've also had a go with Blender, but I'm not experienced with it so may not be doing it right!
Managed to answer my own question, partially at least.
For reasons best known to itself the DTM file was ridiculously exaggerating the vertical extent of the model. I found that my changing the vertical exaggeration in the Qgis2threejs plugin to somewhere around 0.00004 gave sensible results. There is a 'nodata' value of -32768, and I wonder if it's reading that in?
The resulting model looks a little 'lumpy', at least in this representation of part of Hadley Rille, and I'm not sure if that's a feature of the DTM itself or the processing its had to go through to get it presentable.
I've been through all of the Orthographic/DTM combinations and produced a (very) rough guide as to what's covered in what they've released so far. I've also compiled a spreadsheet showing the latitude/longitude if anyone wants that. It doesn't hit many things of interest, though it does cover the Apollo 17 SIV-B impact site and also Luna 21.
Few more OHRC images have been released.
https://pradan.issdc.gov.in/pradan/
Ranger 9's impact point, from file ch2_tmc_nrf_20200107T1218554551_d_img_d18.
Working my way (slowy) through the TMC images they've added, so far they are frustratingly close to, but just missing, Apollo sites (other than the Apollo 14 one I posted earlier).
Hi Threadworm. That image doesn't seem to match the pattern of craters around the Ranger 9 impact site. I have attached an LRO NAC image of the Ranger 9 crater (confirmed by comparing the Ranger 9 images taken just before impact). The two bright-rimmed craters and other bright dots in your image should be visible but are not. If you post a wider context image we may be able to see where your feature is.
Phil
That works! Here is a version with much of the stripe pattern removed. It would be nice to see this imaged by the high resolution camera.
Phil
In a virtual talk held today, Director of Space Applications Centre, ISRO showed an OHRC image of Apollo 11 landing site.
https://youtu.be/T8oV-Kx26no?t=3610
We were notified by u/Harshdeep_2021 on https://redd.it/ph3p9l.
It may well be worth tuning in to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF7vdqDfOwU
scheduled for 05:30 GMT on the 7th of September.
PRL hosted portal for XSM payload with near real-time data plot.
https://www.prl.res.in/ch2xsm/
The presentation wasn't what I'd hoped, and no real clues as to when more data will be released, but for what it's worth there are three documents available here with scientifric results in them:
https://www.isro.gov.in/chandrayaan-2-science-and-data-product-documents
Of the three, the larger third document is probably of more interest, as it contains much of the other two and more pretty pictures
Another couple of hundred TMC files released today.
A nice feature they've released along with the files is a collection of shape files - there are links on the TMC and OHRC browse and download pages.
Those shape files can be imported into Google Earth, which is a much easier way of seeing where they've covered!
These shapefiles can be imported as a layer into Quickmap as well!
https://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/
Meanwhile in another webinar they shared OHRC image of Apollo-12 landing site taken on 5 April 2021.
https://youtu.be/vQj6oKgKeKc (https://old.reddit.com/r/ISRO/comments/pptbep/day_1webinar_series_space_technology/)
https://i.imgur.com/kyxOJ5q.png gives rough location of possible sites. Compared with OHRC shape files it kind of narrows down location to match-up this visual of probable landing site of Chandrayaan-3 lander (~115×92 meters)
Very interesting. Thanks for pointing it out. I see that another part of the presentation had a map with two points representing the Chandrayaan 3 landing sites (prime and backup), and they are not the same as the Chandrayaan 2 sites. They are both fairly close to the CH2 prime site but far from the CH2 backup site. That map is very low resolution but if it is superimposed on the original US Air Force mosaic which was its base the sites can be located better:
Yes Phil I should've mentioned that and we discussed it on reddit, those blue dots are what narrowed down the relevant OHRC data regions and provide clues to where we should look for CY3 landing site.
I didn't notice the Reddit discussion - thanks. So it looks like my southern dot should be inside Boguslowsky crater. I moved it from the rim to a more level spot outside but I should have gone inside.
Phil
Another few hundred files released yesterday from the TMC camera. The updated collection of shape files show most of the new coverage is the far side, and higher northern/southern latitudes.
https://www.isro.gov.in/update/15-nov-2021/chandrayaan-2-orbiter-ch2o-performs-evasive-manoeuvre-to-mitigate-critically
There's no section yet for Chandrayaan III, but launch is set for this August.
https://spacenews.com/india-targets-august-launch-for-chandrayaan-3-lunar-lander/
Spacenews linking to tweet as source. Here are official links.
http://164.100.24.220/loksabhaquestions/annex/178/AU59.pdf
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1795030
And per discussion above landing site is not same as the SN article suggests.
OHRC update covers the Apollo 11 and 12 sites:
Thanks for posting it here! Going to process the image via ISIS
Was checking everyday for this image and for the last 2 days didn't log into Chandrayaan2 portal..
These images are absolutely stunning. Let's hope for more sites imaged like this.
Phil
Great time of lunar day to take images as well; the shadow of the legs seals the deal for me; the detail of an oblique view without the loss of resolution.
Stunning, as Phil says, and the most detailed view of these two sites ever.
52 years later, the surficial disturbance made by the walking astronauts is still visible.
Of course, it is not their actual footprints, but the wider area sprayed by dust lifted by their movements.
Undisturbed surface, bleached by millennia of solar radiation, is lighter in tone. Movement uncovers the darker lower levels.
Can anyone advise the current orbital inclination of Chandrayaan 2?
I suspect near equatorial, meaning it can pass over Apollo 11, 12 and perhaps 14.
But not 15,16 or 17?
No, it is nearly polar so it could view the Chandrayaan 2 landing site at 70 degrees south.
Phil
Another update today, this time the TMC camera, some 330+ files.
No new Apollo coverage, but 111 of the locations are covering the south polar region - at least that's what the shape filename and the appearance of the shape file when loaded into QGIS suggests. However the supplied shape files are proving difficult to load into Google or the LRO map to generate locations. Someone with more expertise than I may be able to get at the shapefile contents and get coordinates from them. Good luck!
And indeed some more images have been added to the OHRC list. Again, odd things going on. The image count has gone up by 6, but in reality there seem to be 20 new ones (10 pairs of raw/calibrated). A hefty chunk of those pairs are, according to the shapefiles that accompany the release) on exactly the same spot (somewhere over the far side).
In addition to the TMC files near Apollo 16's site that have gone astray, the ones that cover Apollo 14 are also gone. I can only think things aren't going well with whoever is adding files to their site!
My top tip is that if you find a file that covers are area of interest, download it!
New CY2 payload data release:
https://twitter.com/Akdixit131/status/1606286561221320704
Pretty hefty data dump under way at the moment. 2000+ TMC-2 files added (so far).
No update to the shapefiles as yet to see where the new coverage is, but hopefully that'll come soon. No change in the number of OHRC files yet, but they tend to do them one instrument at a time!
Edited to add: they've added more files today than in the entire time their data site has been live. Currently standing at over 4000 new files.
The shape files are now available.
Not much additional coverage in terms of the Apollo missions, but there is this of the Apollo 16 site:
New OHRC data just dropped.
From a recent talk by SAC Director Nilesh M Desai. Before and after images of Chandrayaan-2 lander impact location.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nivAGxeDaSc&t=2075s
ISRO have added a searchable map for OHRC and TMC data, with download links for any returned results. If you turn on crater names some anthropogenic features are shown, but not others.
I tried to find this but couldn't (one possible link would not open for me). Can you provide a link?
Phil
Phil
I had tye same problem but eventually got to it at https://chmapbrowse.issdc.gov.in/MapBrowse/
Hope this helps.
Robin
The small number of OHRC images is startling. So many things I would love to see in its images!
Phil
A spurt of activity on the Chandrayaan-2 site. A hefty data dump from the TMC instrument, and a small number of OHRC. The OHRC ones seem focused on Japan's SLIM instrument, as well as India's own lander.
The interactive map for Chnadrayaan-2 images now has TMC and HYSI layers for Chandrayaan-1.
One set of images covering the Hadley Rille area has been missing from ISRO sites for years, despite many ignored requests. I contacted the name given for the interactive map and they very swiftly added them. Here's my processed result for the TMC nadir view over the Apollo 15 site.
Chandrayaan-2 TMC files have had several substantial updates of late, to the point where they are only 1 month behind. The shape files are up to date, but the map seems to take a few days longer to catch up.
I'm hoping that once they are up to date they'll turn their attention to the OHRC section!
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