Chandrayaan 1, India's First Lunar Probe Options

[ljk4-1]

Chandrayaan Lunar Mission Will Carry NASA Payload

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chandray...SA_Payload.html

Bangalore, India (SPX) May 1, 2006 - ISRO has agreed to carry two NASA research
instruments aboard its Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, the Indian lunar-orbiting
mission planned for launch next year, The Hindu newspaper reported Sunday.


ISRO Pushing For Indian Satellite Industry

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/ISRO_Pus...e_Industry.html

Bangalore, India (SPX) May 1, 2006 - ISRO is looking to jump-start an Indian
satellite industry by inviting prospective domestic contractors to work with the
agency until they can develop independent manufacturing capabilities.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Very nice description of Chandrayaan's science payload at http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1704.pdf . Looks well-designed -- if Japan's Selene-1 fails, this one will make a good backup. (Note, by the way, that it carries THREE separate near-IR spectrometers.)

[RNeuhaus]

A very interesting project since it is the Indian's lunar spacecraft mission. India has already developed many spacecraft, all of them for telecomunications, science and meteorological purposes around the Earth. India has own rocket technology which is based of cyrogenic liquid.

The spacecraft will be launched on a PSLV C5 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota on the southeast coast of India in September of 2007 at the earliest. The PSLV will inject Chandrayaan-1 into a 240 x 36000 km geosynchronous transfer orbit. After a 5.5 day lunar transfer trajectory the spacecraft will be captured into an initial 1000 km near circular orbit which will be lowered to a 200 km checkout orbit and finally into a 100 km circular polar orbit. It will stay in orbit and return data for at least two years. Chandrayaan is Hindi for "Moon Craft". Total cost of the mission is about $100 million U.S.

The price tag of the Chandrayaan-1 is not cheap and it sounds about right. It will bring many scientific instruments.

Hope it will success since it is labeled as a high risk project since it is the first project ones.

Rodolfo

[ljk4-1]

NASA Agrees to Cooperate With India on Lunar Mission

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.nl.html?pid=19798

"NASA will have two scientific instruments on India's maiden voyage to the moon.

Tuesday, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and his counterpart, Indian Space
Research Organization Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, signed two Memoranda of
Understanding in Bangalore, India, for cooperation on India's Chandrayaan-1
mission."

[ljk4-1]

India Space Agency Dreams Of Lunar Ice Mines

http://www.moondaily.com/reports/India_Spa..._Mines_999.html

Discussing the aforesaid programme of ISRO, chairman PRI council, ISRO-DOS, Prof UR Rao said: "The mission aims to search for surface or sub-surface water-ice on the moon, specially at the lunar pole and to carry out high resolution mapping of topographic features in 3D. It would also look into the mineral composition of the moon." Rao, who is also Chancellor of Ambedkar University, was in the city on Tuesday.

[GravityWaves]

Outsourcing NASA to India ?

[GravityWaves]

Indian scientist spearheads ISRO-NASA joint moon exploration
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?I...e&Topic=166

India's lunar ambitions
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HK07Df01.html

[GravityWaves]

Mooncraft, India’s the First Dream Spacecraft
http://press-releases.techwhack.com/7850/m...;cid=1114129887

[GravityWaves]

India's first mission to moon 'Chandrayaan I' this year, manned mission to earth's satellite in 2014, landing on Mars in 2020 and perhaps colonisation of the red planet later. That's Indian space think tank's list of missions for the future. ..


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/...how/1690309.cms

"The day time temperatures are about 20 degrees Celsius though night time temperatures are low. We should be able to build an atmosphere without much problem. Then, we could send half our population there," said Physical Research Laboratory council chairman and former Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief

[Marz]

"We should be able to build an atmosphere without much problem. Then, we could send half our population there,"



I suppose if you have the means to lob 300+ million people into space (presumably safely), then building an atmosphere is relatively simple.

[Rakhir]

Only three months from the next lunar mission.
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM6563MDAF_index_0.html

[mps]

Chandrayaan 1 could launch in September
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/M...how/3115579.cms

[Redstone]

Now NET second week of October.

Times of India article

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

Hey, Lunar enthusiasts, wake up!

http://en.rian.ru/world/20081007/117525754.html

Launch now sheduled for October 22

[djellison]

I just finished doing some quick little animations for the C1XS team. It's not a great 3d model of Chandrayaan-1 (it was quite hard to get good details) but the X-Ray spectrometer looks good thanks to help from RAL. It's a bit annoying that the quality of bump maps/textures for the moon is much worse than for Mars - we need this flotilla (Kaguya, Chang-e 1, Chandrayaan-1 and LRO ) to do their thing before we can have realistic data to make better animations . Meanwhile -a few stills attached, I'll leave it up to the C1XS team to release the finished thing. No - it's not vacuuming up skittles....those are Xrays silly

It should make it on ESA's coverage of the launch ( they are involved with C1XS ), the C1XS website, and maybe the national media here in the UK will pick it up as well

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Phil Stooke]

Nice!

I understand the Impact Probe is targeted for Malapert Mountain - this might only be a provisional target, and there may be others. If we have any Indian members who can say more, it would be nice to hear from them. There will be images during the descent, but not full video. Nevertheless there should be a good close look at the surface before the end.

Phil

[elakdawalla]

While looking around for Chandrayaan-1 information recently I stumbled across this site, which seems to be enthusiast-maintained. They have a forum -- might be a good place to ask such questions. The site's in English but presumably the people making the site can read the Hindi-language websites and newspapers.

http://www.chandrayaan-i.com/

--Emily

[djellison]

Yay - cleared for public release


http://dougellison.com/c1xs/c1xs_edited_h264_small.mov 9.3 meg small version
http://dougellison.com/c1xs/c1xs_edited_MP4.mp4 - 50 meg 720p High Def MP4 version

A press release will probably follow, along with the movies going up on the RAL C1XS website.


Doug

[eoincampbell]

I, for one, really appreciate that ...YAY

[djellison]

http://www.sstd.rl.ac.uk/C1xs/C1_Launch.htm.

C1XS Team Launch Animations To celebrate the launch event the C1XS team proudly present an animation visualizing the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in transit from the Earth to the Moon and the C1XS instrument conducting lunar science.

Versions of the animation are available to download:

High Definition MOV : http://www.dougellison.com/c1xs/c1xs_edited_h264.mov
High Definition MP4: http://www.dougellison.com/c1xs/c1xs_edited_MP4.mp4
Standard Definition MOV : http://www.dougellison.com/c1xs/c1xs_edited_h264_small.mov
iPod/iPhone version: http://www.dougellison.com/c1xs/c1xs_edited_ipod.m4v

These animations were commissioned by RAL (STFC) and kindly produced by Doug Ellison http://www.dougellison.com/ who made the animations in gratis to help promote British involvement in space science. The C1XS team are grateful for all his efforts.

The movies were produced using CAD and photographs of the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft and the C1XS instrument. For more details or for further information please contact Doug Ellison at http://www.dougellison.com/

These animations are available to be used by the press - please credit Doug Ellison/RAL.

Just added some details here : http://www.dougellison.com/?p=30

[Phil Stooke]

Nice!

The Moon Impact Probe has now been targeted for the rim of Shackleton crater, according to an article in The Hindu online. There should be images on the way down. This will happen after entry into orbit, in mid-November.

Phil

[djellison]

Wahayyy

http://www.astronomynow.com/081016UKcamera...eyetheMoon.html

I'll be going to the live launch event at RAL near Oxford on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning next week

Doug

[peter59]

Photo Gallary of CHANDRAYAAN-1
http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c11/photos/index.htm
Chandrayaan-1 Live Webcast 22nd Oct 2008 0550-0650 Hrs(IST) ?

[Bhas_From_India]

More info about India's Moon Mission.
http://www.rediff.com/news/moonmission08.html

[Bhas_From_India]

The lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 is scheduled to blast off aboard an Indian-built rocket at 6:20am IST (0050 GMT) on Wednesday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in southern Tamil Nadu state.

[Bhas_From_India]

There is book written by Pallava Bagla titled "Destination Moon" which has all the information about Chandrayaan.

[Bhas_From_India]

On a lighter note..

To keep the odds in their favor, some scientists make pilgrimages to the famous Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, with a small bronze replica of the payload. The model is sprinkled with holy water and placed in front of an idol of Vishnu to be blessed for success.

"Once you are airborne there is not time to make changes," said Rajeev Lochan, assistant science secretary of ISRO. "Maybe it helps to have the divine in your corner."

[Bhas_From_India]

India is getting ready with Deep Space Network too...for future missions to comets/asteroids/mars.

--------
ISRO recently established a 32-meter diameter antenna at Byalalu near Bangalore for providing tracking and command support for Chandrayaan-I.

The antenna and associated systems are the first steps in building the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN), that is vital for facilitating a two-way radio communication link between the spacecraft and the earth.

The DSN-32 project will provide ISRO the capability to handle deep space missions besides allowing it to extend cross-support to similar missions by other nations because of its inter-operable features, world standards specifications and state-of-the-art capabilities.
--------

[djellison]

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/76250/10_200...it-for-you.html

Bits of my anim in there (wooot!) and video of the spacecraft before LV integration.

Doug

[SpaceListener]

India is getting ready with Deep Space Network too...for future missions to comets/asteroids/mars.

Hello,
First, I am thankful to find this thread of forum with wealth of information, but I was not able to find some specific questions.
Would you be kind to let us know?

1. There is only one DSN in Bangalore? Then, if it is so, Bangalore will only be able to track on it only for less than 14 days.
2. Is the launch orbit path from the Earth is on the Equatorial path toward to Moon?
3. Will Chandrayaan 1 enter on Polar orbit of Moon?

Many thanks

[Bhas_From_India]

SpaceListener,

1. Check this for Telemetry and Tracking Info: http://www.isro.org/Chandrayaan/htmls/ground_segment.htm
Looks like Existing N/Ws, New DSN at Byalalu and External DSNs would be used.

2. Check here. http://www.isro.org/Chandrayaan/htmls/home.htm
From "http://www.isro.org/Chandrayaan/htmls/mission_sequence.htm" It looks like Equatorial.

3. Mission Objectives at ISRO website says....
=> " To realise the integration and testing, launching and achieving lunar polar orbit of about 100 km "
So, Lunar Polar Orbit it is.

[Bhas_From_India]

India’s moon mission countdown continues in heavy rain

It was raining heavily at India’s spaceport Sriharikota Tuesday morning as scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) continued their countdown for the launch of the country’s first mission to the moon.Though the ISRO scientists have said only a cyclone would put off their scheduled launch, there were signs of anxiety about the weather, even as the countdown proceeded smoothly.

“The filling of liquid propellant in the fourth stage, charging gas bottles and pressurising them got over at 2 a.m. today (Tuesday). Next major activity is the filling up of the second stage with liquid propellant,” M.Y.S. Prasad, associate director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre told IANS from Sriharikota, off the Andhra Pradesh coast and about 80 km from here.

The 40-tonne fuel-filling activity will start at 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon and is scheduled to be completed by 10 p.m.

Speaking about the weather, he said: “It is not what we want. Nevertheless the launch activities are progressing as scheduled.”

Full Story: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncate..._100109675.html

[djellison]

for less than 14 days.

Hint for you - radio dishes work when it's daytime That dish will have radio visibility for probably a good 10 hours a day I would have thought.

Doug

[Bhas_From_India]

un-necessary quote removed - admin

Also, Looks like NASA is chipping in with tracking ...

In addition to the two science instruments, NASA said it will provide space communications support to Chandrayaan-1.
The primary location for NASA's ground tracking station will be at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

Full Story : http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/oct/21imoon.htm

[Astro0]

FWIW - The Canberra DSN will be using two of its antennas for launch support.
Initial acquisition during spacecraft spin up and booster separation - UTC 0115-0125 nominal.
Acquisition will be tricky, Chandrayaan-1 will be very close to the local horizon and the track will only be for 10 minutes.

We will then provide uplink and downlink support over the following two days for 4-10 hours per day.
We may be called upon again to provide support but as I understand it, the Goldstone DSN will be providing some of the cruise tracking support, along with the JHU antenna.

Looking forward to a successful mission.

Thanks for all the news tips Bhas.

Astro0

[Bhas_From_India]

Glad to share the updates, Astro0.

Fingers crossed at Chandrayaan launch site - October 21, 2008 14:58 IST

Intermittent rains in Nellore district which houses Shriharikota may not affect the launch of India's first moon mission, Chandrayan-1. Indian Space Research Organisation officials told rediff.com that the mission will take off on time and the weather may not be a factor.
Due to bad weather the countdown for the launch of the mission started two hours behind schedule on Monday.

ISRO officials are optimistic that the launch will take place at 0620 hrs on October 22 as per schedule. Nearly 1000 scientists are working overtime in Shriharikota to ensure that the launch is smooth. The countdown process was also supervised personally by ISRO chairman, Madhavan Nair on Monday.

ISRO officials say that the PSLV rocket can sustain a slight drizzle but there could be a problem in case of a heavy downpour at the time of the launch. Everyone at Shriharikota is keeping their fingers crossed so that the weather remains fine and does not play spoilsport during this historic event. ISRO officials say that they hope that there is fine weather. The meterorology department of ISRO is closely monitoring the situation. Only a cyclonic storm or heavy lightning can hold up the launch, they say.

The successful launch of the Chandrayan-1 will prove to be a major step towards achieving another dream and that is to have a manned mission.

M C Dathan, director at the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre, Shriharikota Range says that a preliminary study in this regard has been done and submitted to the Space Commission. Although the proposal has been cleared by the Space Commission, it is pending approval from the government.

Dathan adds that the proposal is likely to be cleared in two months. Sources say that a manned mission to the moon will be a reality by 2015 and ISRO plans to develop a training facility in this regard at Bangalore.

[Bhas_From_India]

NOTE: Found the following information in one of local sites and was not sure if the link will be active for long time...So posting entire content here.

Chandrayaan-1: The Course It Takes From Sriharikota To The Lunar World
=================================================
India's first lunar orbitor, Chandrayaan-1, will travel about 4,00,000 kilometres outside the Earth's atmosphere to capture the "beautiful secrets" of the Moon. But astrophysicists at ISRO will have to wait for at least 18 days to get the first close-up pictures of the lunar terrain from Chandrayaan-1.

Not until November 8, Chandrayaan-1 will reach its designated orbit around the Earth's only natural satellite, at a safe but close distance of 100 km from the Moon. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C11 blasts off from Sriharikota island in Nellore district in the early morning of October 22 carrying Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. The PSLV-C11 will leave the spacecraft at a point in space, 250 km from the Earth at its closest (perigee) and 23,000 km at its farthest (apogee).

According to the celestial schedule drawn up by ISRO team, after circling the Earth in its initial orbit for a while, Chandrayaan-1 is taken into two more elliptical orbits whose apogees lie still higher at 37,000 km and 73,000 km respectively. "This is done at opportune moments by firing the spacecraft's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) when the spacecraft is near perigee. Subsequently, LAM is fired again to take the spacecraft to an extremely high elliptical orbit whose apogee lies at about 3,87,000 km," says the ISRO's plan of action.

In this orbit, the spacecraft makes one complete revolution around the Earth in about 11 days. During its second revolution around the Earth in this orbit, the spacecraft will approach the Moon's north pole at a safe distance of about a few hundred kilometres since the Moon would have arrived there in its journey round the Earth.

"Once the Chandrayaan-1 reaches the vicinity of the Moon, the spacecraft is oriented in a particular way and its LAM is again fired. This slows down the spacecraft sufficiently to enable the gravity of the moon to capture it into an elliptical orbit. Following this, the height of the spacecraft's orbit around the moon is reduced in steps. After a careful and detailed observation of perturbations in its intermediate orbits around the moon, the height of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft's orbit will be finally lowered to its intended 100 km height from the lunar surface," an ISRO release says.

Later, the Moon Impact Probe will be ejected from Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft at the earliest opportunity to hit the lunar surface in a chosen area. Following this, cameras and other scientific instruments are turned on and thoroughly tested. This leads to the operational phase of the mission. This phase lasts about two years during which Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft explores the lunar surface with its array of instruments that includes cameras, spectrometers and its radar system.

[Bhas_From_India]

"Chandrayaan: ISRO all set to capture moments live"

“We’ve placed 20 cameras - both video and high-speed still cameras - at strategic points 600 metres away from the Second Launch Pad from where the rocket lifts off. These are remote-operated and will start functioning once the final count-down begins," said K.Chandrasekhar, who heads the photography wing at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota. The cameras will be placed inside special protective cases at varying heights on four lightning-towers surrounding the launch pad. The cameras will be recovered after a safety team gives the go-ahead after the launch.

This apart, photographers will be deployed seven kilometres from the launch pad to snap the 6.20 a.m launch. They will be using cameras with 500 mm to 600 mm zoom lenses.

And it’s not just digital cameras that will be on the job on Wednesday.

The ISRO team is also using conventional 35 mm film-roll cameras.

“In all, we’ve around 22 photographers here for the event. We’ll be using Nikon and Hasselblad cameras to capture the launch"

>> I Hope to upload the pictures as and when they are available.

[Bhas_From_India]

The launch pad of the Chandrayaan.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[SpaceListener]

Hint for you - radio dishes work when it's daytime That dish will have radio visibility for probably a good 10 hours a day I would have thought.

Doug

Yea, I realized I made a pair of mistakes due to reasons a pair points. I forgot the Earth's rotation (you mentioned) and also the spacecraft will be in the Moon polar orbit so its signal to Earth will break every time when it is on the far side. Well, it is all very nice to recognize the mistakes that is the best way to learn.

[djellison]

Well done BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7679818.stm

Talks about the 'dark' side of the moon ( there is no such thing )
and puts a credit of ISRO on the image - when is should be Doug Ellison / RAL.

The still was lifted from page 1 of this thread as well.

[centsworth_II]

Well done BBC...
Talks about the 'dark' side of the moon ( there is no such thing )

From the article: Chandrayaan will also investigate the differences between the Moon's near side and its "dark side".

"Dark side," put in quotes, just refers to a lack of familiarity, in the same sense that referring to Africa as the "dark continent" was never meant to imply that the sun never rose there. The image accreditation is another matter.

[Rakhir]

...puts a credit of ISRO on the image - when is should be Doug Ellison / RAL.

The BBC has now updated the credit on the image.

[djellison]

And tweaked the nearside/darkside text as well

[Astro0]

Emily mentioned the webcast in the PS Blog...
Here's the direct link: http://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c11/videos/introduction.htm

Astro0

PS: Just adding to post higher above. The Canberra DSN will also be providing tracking support later today between 0600-1130 UTC.

[slinted]

The video stream is also available at http://msrv2.wstream.net/isro/

[Bhas_From_India]

3 minutes to go...very exciting....hope it will be successful..

[Jason W Barnes]

Ack -- we can't get the broadcast feed to work. Requesting liveblog updates from anyone who can see the feed! Is it working?

- Jason W. Barnes

[Phil Stooke]

Launched successfully!

Phil

[Bhas_From_India]

Launch went fine...so far...
3rd stage in progress...
4th stage ignition went successfully.

Velocity - 7.326km/s
5 minutes in to flight

[tanjent]

Slinted's link yields only a series of still shots which seem to be days and weeks old - no live streaming video that my super-slow ADSL connection can pick up on. The fault may lie at least partly with my location - Taiwan has not added any off-island broadband capacity for eight or nine years, since the boom went bust. We have super-fast domestic internet but for overseas traffic we are back to the days of dialup. Emily's link from the blog yields a still of a launch (I don't believe it is today's launch) and a notification that the live webcast should have already begun. So I'll be looking here for confirmation that the launch has taken place...

[Bhas_From_India]

Alititude: 210 km
Velocity : 8km/Sec
Flight Time : 740sec

Going good so far

[Bhas_From_India]

Seems everything went fine.
orbit is achieved.
Now, we have to wait for 5.5 days for Chandrayaan-I to arrive at Moon.

[elakdawalla]

Thanks, Bhas! Keep the updates coming -- I've lost the feed here in Los Angeles, and am trying to get updates for my blog -- you will be my lifeline!

--Emily

[Jason W Barnes]

Seems everything went fine.
orbit is achieved.
Now, we have to wait for 5.5 days for Chandrayaan-I to arrive at Moon.

Yes, thanks very much for the updates!

What's the mission design -- i.e., the spacecraft is now in low-Earth-orbit. It will probably need a circularization burn at apoapsis in half an hour. Will there be a trans-lunar-insertion burn to send it out of Earth's gravity later on sometime, or was it on a direct path to the moon initially? Thanks in advance to anyone who has an idea about this,

- Jason

[elakdawalla]

AFP is reporting that official time of liftoff was 00:52 UTC.

Jason, you can probably find what you want to know here; report back and let us know!

--Emily

[Bhas_From_India]

ISRO: 1st leg of chandrayaan has been perfect.
ISRO: Spacecraft to now circle the earth.
ISRO: India is the 6th nation to send "UnManned SpaceFlight" to Moon.
ISRO: Every parameter of the launch has proceeded successfully.
ISRO: We are certain that Chandrayaan-I will reach moon.

That's all for now.
I will check some time later to see if there is any other information available.

[Phil Stooke]

All the recent missions including this one have started in a geostationary transfer orbit (or geometrically similar - apogee at 25000 km or so). Then they increase the apogee with successive burns until it is at lunar distance and slip into a high lunar orbit, then gradually shrink that to a low lunar orbit. SMART-1 did something similar but very slowly with its ion engine. The 5.5 day trip to the Moon doesn't start at once, it's the last of those big orbits.

Phil

[elakdawalla]

Ah. Here's a diagram of exactly what you're describing, Phil. Initial perigee is 250 km, apogee 23,000 km. Unfortunately it doesn't specify how long the whole journey is supposed to take. Does anybody know?

--Emily

[Bhas_From_India]

I don't know what all the Cameras captured.
Very cloudy climate. Smoke at Lift-Off around rocket.

Achieving orbit etc using PSLV is normal since thats what would have happened in case of launch of any other satellite.
The real task would be orbital corrections and placing it in required orbit around Moon.
Then we have Deployment of all Instruments and Releasing Impactor.

as far as the information available to actual interesting stuff would start (data/photos etc) from Nov, 8th.

[elakdawalla]

Yeah, it looked like it launched directly into a cloud, but I did catch a glimpse of the rocket emerging briefly from cloud atop a pillar of fire -- that will be the money shot, if someone captured it.

Thanks again for the updates.

--Emily

[Phil Stooke]

Bhas, we are told the impact probe will hit the rim of Shackleton. Do you have any source that gives a precise target point, in coordinates or on an image?

Phil

[elakdawalla]

This site maintains a helpful list of links to news stories about the mission. The first post-launch news stories have just appeared.

--Emily

[Bhas_From_India]

Bhas, we are told the impact probe will hit the rim of Shackleton. Do you have any source that gives a precise target point, in coordinates or on an image?

Phil

I don't have. I will try though.

[Bhas_From_India]

Here is another picture of the mission.


NOTE: as Phil has pointed out the Launch vehicle shown here is that of GSLV. Rest of info. is all about Chandrayaan-I.

[Bhas_From_India]

Update from ISRO

Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair described the successful launch as a historic moment in India's space programme.
"The launch was perfect and precise. The satellite has been placed in the earth orbit. With this, we have completed the first leg of the mission and it will take 15 days to reach the lunar orbit," Nair announced in the mission control centre shortly after PSLV-C11 put the spacecraft in a transfer orbit.

After circling the earth in its highly elliptical Transfer Orbit for a while, Chandrayaan-1 would be taken into more elliptical orbits by repeated firing of the spacecraft's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) at opportune moments.
Subsequently, the LAM would be again fired to take the spacecraft to the vicinity of the moon by following a Lunar Transfer Trajectory (LTT) path, whose apogee lies at 3,87,000 km.

Later, when Chandrayaan-1 reaches the vicinity of the moon, its LAM would be fired again so as to slow down the spacecraft sufficiently to enable the gravity of the moon to capture it into an elliptical orbit. The next step would be to reduce the height of the spacecraft orbit around the moon in various steps.
After some more procedures, Chandrayaan-1's orbit would be finally lowered to its intended 100 km height from the lunar surface, which was expected to take place around November 8.

Later, the Moon Impact Probe would be ejected from Chandrayaan-1 in a chosen area following which the cameras and other payloads would be turned on and thoroughly tested, marking the operational phase of the mission.

"Fortunately, we had clear skies today and we would be completing the remaining part of the journey within 15 days," Nair said.

[Bhas_From_India]

After launch, action shifts to Bangalore centre

Once the launch is done at Sriharikota, Peenya in Bangalore will take over Chandrayaan-I — the spacecraft and mission.

Hectic activity is on at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (Istrac) at Peenya, which will be the country's nerve-centre for tracking and controlling Chandrayaan-I for the next two years.

Peenya will receive the first signals from the spacecraft 17 minutes after take-off, when the fourth stage of the rocket separates and injects the spacecraft into Earth's orbit. From the 17th minute to the very last day of the spacecraft's life — two years from now — ISTRAC will be in command.

The Deep Space Network (DSN) at Byalalu will join ISTRAC in tracking the spacecraft six hours after take-off. Both DSN and ISTRAC will act as back-up stations for each other, with ISTRAC concentrating on the data flow from the spacecraft, and DSN helping in reception of the radio signals owing to its powerful 32-metre antenna. But ISTRAC will be the primary agency tracking the craft.

The control centre at ISTRAC has about 350 people monitoring the health of Indian satellites. While there are groups designated for specific satellites, any member from any group could be called upon to help with Chandrayaan.

On Tuesday, engineers at ISTRAC were busy running last-minute checks on simulators, communication links, quality of links, verifying operations of systems and testing for 100% accuracy in reception, flow and expression of data. ISTRAC deputy director Chiranjeevi said, "There is work every two-three seconds. We have to ensure that all systems are working to perfection."

Chiranjeevi said ISTRAC would receive the first signals from the spacecraft in the form of engineering units — data on computers. "There will be hundreds of such units flowing in. We will check the units for voltage on the craft, temperature, power, battery strength, orbit determination and orientation, fuel and general health of the spacecraft."

He said engineers will work in shifts to monitor Chandrayaan every minute for the next two years. "They sit in front of the computers and look at data flow based on which control commands are operated. But there are 2,000 parameters to check on and it would be humanly impossible to get engineers to monitor every one of them. So we have automatic software systems in place that will immediately alert us to any change in operations and sequence," Chiranjeevi explained.

"We can't get anything wrong. We have been maintaining satellites for the last 20 years and it would be the same with Chandrayaan," he added.

[MizarKey]

I checked Heaven's Above but it didn't have any info on seeing Chandrayaan 1, does anyone know if it will be visible over North America?

[Bhas_From_India]

Some snaps of Launch

[ustrax]

बधाई भारत के लिए इस उपलब्धि पर!

Not bad at Portuguese public channel news coverage...Chandrayaan I arrived right after Champions League and global economic crisis.
Clean and with no mistakes, with a focus on Helium-3.

[Rakhir]

Some snaps of Launch

Hi Bhas,

your first picture seems to be a night Sea Launch

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Excellent replies, nice videos by Doug !
Good report by BBC

Anyway, I would like to have some book info:
Destination Moon by Pallava Bagla (India)

Does it describe Chandrayaan-1 and -2?
Does anybody have ISBN number?

[Bhas_From_India]

Hi Bhas,

your first picture seems to be a night Sea Launch

Removed it. - Thanks for pointing out. :-(

[Bhas_From_India]

Excellent replies, nice videos by Doug !
Good report by BBC

Anyway, I would like to have some book info:
Destination Moon by Pallava Bagla (India)

Does it describe Chandrayaan-1 and -2?
Does anybody have ISBN number?

Details about book:
Title : Destination Moon [ : India's Quest for the Moon, Mars and Beyond ]
Author: Pallava Bagla
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9788172236762
Seller: Indus International
Price : 195 Rupees [ about 4$ ]

" The book tells the story of India's moon mission right from its conception to launch.
It also sheds light on India's maiden moon craft, Chandrayaan-1 which will seek to unravel the mysteries
of the earth's closest neighbour that is still an enigma. "

[mps]

For those who like compare numbers (like I do), here is some data about recent/near future lunar probes:


s/c ; mass in lunar orbit ; lunar orbit ; imager resolution

SMART-1 ; 370 kg ; 2300 x 4500 km polar ; 80 m/pix
Kaguya ; 2885 kg ; 100 km polar ; 10 m/pix
Chang'e-1 ; ?* ; 200 km polar** ; 120 m/pix
Chandrayaan-1 ; 590 kg ; 100 km polar ; 5 m/pix
LRO ; 1823 kg ; 50 km polar ; 0.5 m/pix


* Chang'e-1 mass is according to Wikipedia 2350 kg, but I don't know if it is launch mass or mass in lunar orbit

** inclination ca 90 deg according to http://150.197.1.105:10000/KariWeb/fulltext1/05_1/515.pdf
but ca 64 deg according to Wikipedia

Sources:
presentations from LRO Project Science Working Group Meeting November 28, 2006 (sorry, can't find them online right now, but the link is somewhere in UMSF.com)
http://150.197.1.105:10000/KariWeb/fulltext1/05_1/515.pdf
Wikipedia

[Bhas_From_India]

‘Once Chandrayaan goes near the moon, we will be there to track it’
Full Story : http://www.hindu.com/2008/10/22/stories/2008102255641100.htm
Has more information about IDSN.

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

There was a huge press-conference here, in Bulgaria. Please, be patient - I'm going to publish some interesting information about the mission.

Doug, Stu - was there a press-conference in England about the mission and the UK-built instrument?

[djellison]

There was going to be : http://www.sstd.rl.ac.uk/c1xs/C1_Launch.htm - however, it was cancelled. (I was going to attend that ) There was an 1000 meeting, but I couldn't make that. I've not seen anything on the media -( apart from very short pieces just showing the launch )

Doug

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

And some interesting data:

It was estimated that Bulgaria spent 60 000 Bulgarian levs on RADOM-7. I can't say for sure, but it's about $40000! Compare this to the instruments of NASA and ESA. RADOM-7 is one of the cheapest instruments aboard Chandrayaan-1.

When I asked when the instrument is going to be switched on, they said that it depends on the Indian coleagues. But we expect that it will be switched on when we pass the Van Allen belts. Then we hope to collect information about the radiation levels during the trip to the Moon and in lunar orbit.

RADOM-7 is a successor of several other instruments which were flying aboard Mir and ISS, but this is about manned exploration and I will stop here. However I will say that our results are often cited in international scientific journals and that's why our participation aboard Chandrayaan-1 must not surprise anybody.

[Bhas_From_India]

Bhas, we are told the impact probe will hit the rim of Shackleton. Do you have any source that gives a precise target point, in coordinates or on an image?

Phil

Phil,

May be the "actual target point" is not decided yet.
also, Since this is going to be "impact" probe, exact location may not (my guess) be that important.

as far as ISROs update : It would travel for about "28 minutes" from time it is released from the orbiter to impact point at polar region.

[Phil Stooke]

Hi - the target is important. The nominal descent trajectory has to intersect the surface somewhere, so the first question is, where is that point? But where it is is very important for another reason - if you are taking images on the way down, the area to be imaged has to be illuminated, and that's a big issue at the poles. My point is that there must be a precise target, though it might not have been publicly announced yet.

Phil

[Bhas_From_India]

Antennae turn to Chandrayaan - From "The Hindu"

Training their gaze on India’s maiden moon launch on Wednesday are antennae at Mauritius, Brunei, Biak (Indonesia) and Bearslake (Russia), Goldstone, Maryland, Hawaii (U.S.), Brazil, Russia, Lucknow, Sriharikota, Thiruvananthapuram, Port Blair and, of course, the giant antennae at Byalalu, which will feed ISTRAC with telemetric information on the health of Chandrayaan.
....
“For the first 48 hours we will be receiving telemetry data on the health of the satellite from all these stations. Typically these stations have 10 metre antennae which are sufficient to track the satellite at this stage,” said O. Chiranjeevi, Group Director, ISTRAC. The antennae at Byalalu will begin to pick up signals within six hours after its launch, said Dr. Shivakumar. The Indian Deep Space Network Facility includes two antennae – a 32 metre one and an 18 metre one. However, the true work of these antennae will begin later once the satellite reaches a distance of over one lakh kilometres in a couple of days".

Hi - the target is important. The nominal descent trajectory has to intersect the surface somewhere, so the first question is, where is that point? But where it is is very important for another reason - if you are taking images on the way down, the area to be imaged has to be illuminated, and that's a big issue at the poles. My point is that there must be a precise target, though it might not have been publicly announced yet.

Phil

Phil,

Ok. I will keep looking for the information about MIP.

- Bhas

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Hi Bhas,

thanks for the information on the " Destination Moon " book but in Your post # 65, the drawing shows a GSLV launch vehicle
(Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle)

Compare with:

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

I think that this is a fanstatic achievement for India. This mission will really give their aerospace, science and engineering sectors a real boost and further the development of the country.

Will the probe be able to photograph surface features with the same resolution os the planned LRO? It would be great if we could discern some of the Apollo landing sites. Also, what are India's long-term plans with respect to the Moon? I very much hope that this is the beginning of a whole range of exploratory missions.

[Bhas_From_India]

Interesting Update
=============

Why ISRO changed the orbit-transfer strategy - From Hindu

The revised strategy will have five earth-bound orbits
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had earlier planned two earth-bound orbits for the spacecraft before it moved towards the moon. Much like in the case of the earth orbits, two lunar orbits were planned for before the spacecraft reached the final lunar orbit destination — circular orbit of about 100 km from the moon’s surface.
But ISRO had revised the orbit-transfer strategy. In the revised strategy, there will be five earth-bound orbits. The first orbit will have an apogee (farthest point from the earth) of 23,000 km and perigee of 255 km.

Increasing apogees
The second orbit will have an apogee of about 1,60,000 km and the third orbit will have an apogee of about 2,60,000 km. The fourth earth-bound orbit will have an apogee of about 3,87,000 km. It will take about 11 days to complete the fourth earth-bound orbit. During the fifth earth-bound orbit, which will have an apogee of about 3,84,000 km, the spacecraft will approach the moon’s North pole at a safe distance of a few hundred kilometres.

To calibrate the systems
“Basically, we wanted to calibrate our systems, such as the ground tracking system. When we get out of earth’s influence [gravity], there will be an influence of other planets, sun and moon’s gravity. We have theoretical knowledge of this influence. But getting actual data will be more useful to calibrate our systems,” said Dr. Madhavan Nair, Chairman of ISRO.
“The fourth and fifth orbits go up to the final point before it [the spacecraft] comes back. So this will help us to calibrate the systems better,” he said.
“[The earth-bound orbits] will tell us how far our assumptions and models are correct,” Dr. Nair said.

To avoid errors
The earlier orbit-transfer strategy involving just two earth-bound orbits would have also provided the essential data. “When we do it [in fewer and smaller orbits] in a short period, we have to evaluate all the parameters in a shorter time. So some errors can arise,” said Dr. Nair, explaining why the orbit-transfer strategy was changed.
In the revised strategy, there will be two lunar orbits before the spacecraft reaches the final circular orbit of about 100 km from the moon’s surface.
But will the revised strategy, which will involve longer period in space before it reaches its final destination, lead to more fuel consumption and hence affect the total mission duration? “The fuel consumption will be the same and the mission life will also be the same,” he stressed.

== So, Ideally it should have taken 5.5 days to reach moon. and I was wandering why we have to wait close to 2 weeks to get data... Now we know.

[Bhas_From_India]

Byalalu tunes in to moon mission - From Hindu

Bangalore: At 1.20 p.m., exactly seven hours after the launch of Chandrayaan 1 from Sriharikota, the giant saucer-shaped antennae, standing out conspicuously amid the stark landscape of Byalalu village near Bangalore, began to rotate gently as it picked up the first signals from the lunar spacecraft.

On a rainy Wednesday afternoon the mood at the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) here was celebratory as scientists received data from the parabolic antennae indicating that Chandrayaan I was in good health and on track. The 20 space scientists at the IDSN who had kept awake through Tuesday night in preparation for this moment applauded and shook hands as the first signal flickered on the telemetry monitors. “Everything worked out just perfectly and we received the data exactly as scheduled,” said L. Srinivasan, General Manager of ISRO’s Bangalore Telemetry, Tracking and Command Facility.Not far, a much larger group of scientists at the mission’s nerve centre, ISTRAC (ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network), analysed the telemetric data from Byalalu sent through a communication link.

“For the next four or five days, Chandrayaan will be tracked by several small antennae around the world. After this period, when the satellite crosses one lakh kilometres, only three ground stations with large antennae will track it: those at Byalalu, Maryland and Canberra,” said Mr. Srinivasan.

The Byalalu centre will be one of only two ground stations by the time the payload data from the 11 experiments on board comes in, the other one being Maryland.....

[Bhas_From_India]

ISTRAC director S.K. Shivakumar says that
DSN got the first signals at 1.28pm yesterday.
and by that time spacecraft has already completed one orbit. (this is within 6.5hrs of launch).

also, It is now almost confirmed that Lunar orbit insertion must be done by Nov, 8th.

[Bhas_From_India]

New Stories are slowly coming out...

When the Moon Mission had a major scare
A "small" fuel spill mishap when the Polar rocket with the Chandrayaan-I spacecraft atop was being fuelled created a near "scare" during the final countdown for the launch of India's maiden unmanned moon mission, ISRO Chief Madhavan Nair said.
This was revealed by Nair who earlier in the day spoke of how space scientists at the Sriharikota spaceport faced an "ordeal" after rains pounded the area and surrounding parts for nearly five days.
"Yesterday, we had a small mishap during filling operation when some of the fuel spilled over from one of the courses of the ground system and this created almost a scare," Nair said.
The ISRO chief also said launch personnel had to clear the "pad" and then carry out repairs before proceeding with the blast-off preparations.
"We had to take a tough decision as to how much of fuel had to be loaded, how much as to be unloaded and number of operations to be carried out simultaneously which we have never done earlier," he said.
"We lost 10 hours in the countdown yesterday due to inclement weather and almost lost the hope of making the launch. But working against all odds ISRO team has won the game," Nair said. North-East monsoon usually peaks over the eastern coast around this time of the year.
"It was an ordeal and never before we had such horrible weather just ahead of the launch date," he added.

Kudos to the team for "successful launch" in spite of these issues...

[elakdawalla]

I dropped in this evening on a social event being held in connection with a Cassini project science group meeting, and chatted with a scientist who's working on one of the American-contributed instruments. He was very pleased the launch went well, of course, and I said something like "Well, India's already proven they can do launches; I didn't worry too much about that, but I'm glad the spacecraft is on its way." He shook his head and said that the mission was so bent on getting Chandrayaan-1 launched on the stated date that although they went through all the testing -- shake and bake and so on -- that after they were done with the shake test they buttoned the thing up and shipped it off to the launch site before they had even analyzed the data from the prelaunch testing. They were in too much of a hurry to look at the data. Another scientist laughed and said "Well I guess as long as nothing fell off during the shake test they figured it was okay." Still, kind of scary! The first scientist said it's just about two weeks to orbit "and then the fire hose opens up" in terms of data.

--Emily

[mcaplinger]

Another scientist laughed and said "Well I guess as long as nothing fell off during the shake test they figured it was okay."

Like a "scientist" would know how to interpret the results of a vibe test anyway. Beakers.

[Bhas_From_India]

as per new Orbit Transfer Strategy (Chandrayaan-I) ...

Earth Bound Orbits
1. Elliptical orbit - Perigee: 255km,
Apogee: 22,860km
2. Highly Elliptical orbit - Perigee: 300km
Apogee: 160000km
3. Intermediate transfer orbit - Perigee: 300km
Apogee: 2,60,000km
4. Extremely high elliptical orbit: Perigee: 300km
Apogee: 3,87,000km
5. Extremely high elliptical orbit: Perigee: 2000km
Apogee: 3,84,000km

Moon Bound Orbits
1. Lunar orbit 1 - Perigee: 500km
Apogee: 5000km
2. Lunar orbit 2 - Perigee: 100km
Apogee: 5000km
3. Lunar orbit 3 - Perigee: 100km
Apogee: 100km

[Bhas_From_India]

Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar orbiter, continued its long journey to the moon as operations planned by the
Indian Space Research Organisation scientists for raising its orbit went on satisfactorily on Thursday.....
The health of the spacecraft is normal seems to be normal.
The orbit-raising operations were carried out by scientists at ISRO's (ISTRAC) along with experts from ISRO centres.

[mps]

as operations planned by the
Indian Space Research Organisation scientists for raising its orbit went on satisfactorily on Thursday.....

'Satisfactorily'? Normaly the PR-folks prefer to say 'as planned', 'as expected' or something like that. I'm curious if there has been some minor anomalies during operations?

[ugordan]

These aren't western PR folks, though.

[djellison]

English is a second language for the C1 team - and to be honest, I think they're doing an awesome job of it so far.

Doug

[ugordan]

Indeed. It's also probably a cultural difference thing.

[ngunn]

Ha!-I noticed this too. It makes you realise how we're twisting and mangling our own language. When exactly did 'satisfactory' come to mean 'just a whisker off disastrous'? Indeed it's refreshing to go to India or Pakistan and hear english words still being used properly.

[rlorenz]

Why ISRO changed the orbit-transfer strategy - From Hindu

The revised strategy will have five earth-bound orbits
....
Increasing apogees
...
To calibrate the systems

etc..

First, thanks for posting these continued updates, Bhas. And congratulations.

I am curious, though, why this was a 'revised strategy'. I mean, it's all very well to
take things slow to do better orbit determination etc., but why not design that in from the
start - what new information led to this 'revision' ? Was it just contact with the reality
of doing the orbit determination, or something else ?

[Bhas_From_India]

etc..

First, thanks for posting these continued updates, Bhas. And congratulations.

I am curious, though, why this was a 'revised strategy'. I mean, it's all very well to
take things slow to do better orbit determination etc., but why not design that in from the
start - what new information led to this 'revision' ? Was it just contact with the reality
of doing the orbit determination, or something else ?

Thanks.
Final Approval for Chandrayaan-II with 486 Crore given last week by Cabinet.
Now, ISRO has a clear picture about future mission(s). This could be one reason.
I will look for any further explanation about this from ISRO.

[charborob]

Do we have any idea of ISRO's policy concerning the release of images to the public? I hope we will have access to the Chandrayaan-1 images, because I'm a bit frustrated by the low rate of release of the Kaguya images, not to mention Chang-e. I wonder if that last probe is still doing its thing up there, because we haven't had news for a long time.