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[Bhas_From_India]

Moon probe ejection on November 14 or 15

ISRO will study Chandrayaan-1’s orbit for a day or two before commanding to eject on November 14 or 15 the 29-kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP), a box-like instrument on top of the spacecraft. The probe will crash-land on the Moon’s surface. Since the MIP is painted with the Indian flag on its sides, it will symbolically register the Indian presence on the Moon.

>>> Would the paint stick to it all the way down and after impact???

S. Satish, Director, Publications and Public Relations, ISRO, said: “The ISRO team was very cautious in executing this critical manoeuvre because we did not want to jeopardise the mission. This is a precious mission for us. Contingency plans were in place in case the liquid apogee motor (LAM) engine on board Chandrayaan-1 did not fire. Then, we would have used other thrusters on board the spacecraft to fire… There have been dynamic changes in our manoeuvres to reach the Moon.”

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

[callisto]

Chandrayaan has entered into into a orbit which is 102 kms above moons surface,very close to final orbit.
the details are in this article.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chandra...how/3705426.cms

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

Will images of the Moon's surface be released by ISRO soon? I'm looking forward to seeing these.

[Phil Stooke]

"When the probe hits the surface, it is expected to kick up a huge amount of dust that will be analysed by instruments on the Chandrayaan orbiter."

This is from New Scientist.

I've heard nothing about any plans by amateurs or professionals to try to observe this event. Anybody else heard anything? It's not a huge probe, so I doubt if the cloud will be as huge as they suggest, and chances are nothing could be observed, but you never know. SMART-1 was seen by a big telescope, but it was in the dark and seen in IR. This will be in the light.

Phil

[sssalvi]

A little more details on MIP with a possible timetag: ( about 1630GMT on 14/NOV )

Bangalore, November 13: The Indian flag is all set to mark its presence on the lunar surface for the first time on Friday as a moon probe with the tri-colour painted on it will detach from Chandrayaan-1 and descend onto the earth's natural satellite.


"The Moon Impact Probe is expected to be detached (from Chandrayaan-1) at around 10 pm on Friday," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) spokesperson S Satish said.
...

"During its 20-minute descend to the moon's surface, MIP will take pictures and transmit these back to the ground," he said.

...

the primary objective of MIP is to demonstrate the technologies required for landing a probe at the desired location on the moon.

The probe will help qualify some of the technologies related to future soft landing missions. This apart, scientific exploration of the moon at close distance is also intended using MIP.


The 29-kg MIP consists of a C-band Radar Altimeter for continuous measurement of altitude of the probe, a video imaging system for acquiring images of the surface of moon from the descending probe and a mass spectrometer for measuring the constituents of extremely thin lunar atmosphere during its 20-minute descent to the lunar surface.

ISRO officials are confident that the MIP would withstand the impact once it hits the lunar surface. "Most probably it will not disintegrate," an ISRO official said

Also this:

at an altitude of 100 kilometres, ISRO will issue commands to re-orient and eject the MIP, which has an onboard motor that will fire for two seconds to slow the MIP's descent velocity to 75 metres per second. During its descent to the lunar surface, the MIP will activate its video-camera which will capture images of the lunar surface that will be instrumental in ISRO's decision to pick a suitable landing site for Chandrayaan-2's rover.

The MIP's altimeter will measure its altitude from the Moon's surface every second, while a third instrument, the mass spectrometer, will sense the moon's atmospheric constituents as it free falls to the lunar surface. All data would be transmitted to Chandrayaan-1 till the MIP crash-lands on the moon, which in turn would be beamed back to earth.

[djellison]

Two seconds, to 75m/sec?

Orbital velocity at the moon at 100km is about 1.6km/sec

Getting from 1600 to 75m/sec in 2 seconds is 762.5 m/s/s - or 77.7G.

Langauge barrier alert - I think they meant slow it BY 75m/sec (which, in 2 seconds, would be roughly 4 G, a small solid motor would do that fine).

Slow the orbit BY 75m/sec - from 1630m/sec to 1555m/sec - would result in an impact about 20 minutes later, at a velocity of around 1650m/sec - with a vertical element of approx 140m/sec (all simualted using Orbiter, the free space flight simulator)

I find it a little unlikely that the probe will, in any way, survive the process.

[Bhas_From_India]

Chandrayaan-1 Successfully Reaches its Operational Lunar Orbit

Today, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has successfully reached its intended operational orbit at a height of about 100 km from the lunar surface.

Link: http://isro.org/pressrelease/Nov12_2008.htm

[MahFL]

Excellent.

[Phil Stooke]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Tricolo...how/3710598.cms

More information on the MIP impact.

To add a little to it, Chandrayaan will be orbiting roughly over the prime meridian, moving from north to south. The probe is released near the equator and descends to an impact at the south pole, transmitting its data to the main orbiter. Images are taken at intervals - it's not video, as some reports suggest. We can expect good images from the lower altitudes, maybe including a glimpse of 'Malapert Mountain' as it flies over it. Malapert was an earlier candidate for the impact target, but now it should fly over it at low elevation and strike the rim of Shackleton. I don't know how accurately the descent trajectory can be predicted. After impact the orbiter disappears around the far side, and transmits its data back to Earth after it reappears.

Phil

[SpaceListener]

Thanks Phil for your comments. The thing that I am convinced is that MIP has no lateral thrusters to correct the trajectory which would lead less impact target accuracy. Does anyone know about their probable impact elliptic?

[Bhas_From_India]

Looks like MIP will be released 8.03pm or 8.04 pm (IST) To night.
and It is expected to hit the lunar surface at around 8:30pm.

[shankar]

Thanks Phil for your comments. The thing that I am convinced is that MIP has no lateral thrusters to correct the trajectory which would lead less impact target accuracy. Does anyone know about their probable impact elliptic?

The MIP is a spin stabilized probe. MIP does have three spin motors on the sides which would start once the MIP is released from the orbiter.

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/do...fobjectid=41986

See page-18 of the above presentation.

[sssalvi]

Here is a possible timeline for MIP drop:

1. Launch from Mother craft : 14:33 to 14:34 GMT
2. It will fly over the Malapert crater for about nine seconds.
3. Landing of Probe on Moon : Around 1500Hrs GMT near the Shackleton Crater ... velocity at the time of impact is abput 1.5Km/sec.

The Mothership( CY1 ) will collect the data from probe but it will not be visible to Earth because it will be behind the moon when it collects the data.

So the data will be downloaded when the Mothership re-emerges from near North Pole from behind the moon after half orbit period.

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

Twitter says that we had a good ejection:

http://twitter.com/Chandrayaan1

Pictures of MIP will be released by tomorrow.

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

And update: We have impact of MIP. Mission accomplished. India becomes 4th nation to land on lunar surface!!!

Congrats, ISRO!