That's probably true, but anyway, I feel very frustrated. We have thousands of publications that TMC has started imaging the Moon, but none of the pictures are piblished.

ISRO generally takes a few days to make public the images from any S/C. Even for their IRS series which images Earth it takes about 3 to 4 days.

Lunar orbit achieved, congratulations ISRO!

I'm looking forward to the pictures...

India’s Moon mission a big success

Has a pciture "A TV grab of the Moon sent by Chandrayaan-1 on November 4."
http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/09/stories/2008110960640100.htm

and other links
http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/09/stories/2008110955710800.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/09/stories/2008110959790800.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/09/stories/2008110959740800.htm

Above links has info like ....

"Asked why the operation happened about half an hour earlier than the originally expected time of 17:30 hrs, Mr. Annadurai said the actual solar radiation pressure on the satellite — something which is only an estimate based on modelling — required that the torque to be applied on the satellite using the on-board momentum wheels to achieve the correct orientation was less than anticipated. Since the correct orientation could be achieved a little before 17:00 hrs itself and the position of the spacecraft was also correctly above the north-pole, the firing was carried out earlier, he said."

What a beauty!



Image taken from here: http://raakshaseeyam.blogspot.com/2008/11/...s-pictures.html

Lol if you say so =P.
It reminds me of one of those 1960's Luna spacecraft images. But then again, the image was taken ~300,000 km away. I'm sure we'll get better images as the mission goes on.

Yes... and also, this was probably a cellphone photo of a TV screen, not the original data!

Phil

Chandrayaan orbital: height reduced

..... the periselene was reduced to 200 km on Sunday. The aposelene continues at 7,500 km.....

Link: http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/10/stories/2008111058230100.htm

First orbital reduction of chandrayaan-1 achieved.


http://isro.org/pressrelease/Nov10_2008.htm

This is the first of the five orbit reductions before chandrayaan-1
settles into 100 * 100 km final orbit. Considering that the MIP
is planned to be released on nov-15 that means we can expect
one orbit reduction everyday till nov-14.

On a side note November-14 is celebrated in India as children's day.

I am curious on how to reduce the Chandrayaan's aposelene and periselene height.

I am thinking that in order to reduce:

• The aposelene's height: Reduce speed of Chandrayaan when it approaches to periselene.
• The periselene's height: Reduce speed of Chandrayaan when it approaches to apolesene

Are the above suppositions corrects?

That's the simplest way to do it, yes.

And most energy-efficient.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/11/stories/2008111161161000.htm

Getting closer to the final orbit and ejection of MIP. A diagram I have seen suggests that the MIP camera faces downwards rather than slightly forwards, so it would not image its exact impact point. In that respect it would be like Ranger 8 rather than Rangers 7 and 9.

Phil

Chandrayaan 1 - new images website up:

http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/moon_images.htm

This will be the site to check for future goodies.

Phil

Chandrayaan-1 gets further closer to moon

Bangalore (PTI): Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on Tuesday moved closer to the Moon with ISRO scientists carrying out orbit reduction manoeuvre at 18:30 hours for a duration of 31 seconds.

"The current orbit of Chandrayaan-1 is 255.3 km (the farthest distance from the moon) X 101.3 km (nearest distance to the moon). The orbital period is 2.09 hours", ISRO spokesperson S Satish told PTI.

Further manoeuvres are planned in the coming days to bring the spacecraft to its final circular orbit of 100 kms above the moon's surface, Satish said.