How ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 got helped from NASA and ESA

[GamoAccu]

Chandrayaan-3 is just a few minutes away from creating history. It is scheduled for touchdown on the Soth Pole of the Moon at 6:04 pm IST. In this long journey, there have been various contributors and collaborators who are working day and night to make ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 moon mission a success, and among them are NASA and ESA space agencies.
Since the launch of the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14, we have been receiving a remarkable display of international collaboration. Ground stations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) are providing support to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) during its moon mission. Global backup support is crucial during space missions and this especially applies to spacecraft landing. In India, ISRO operates a 32-meter deep space tracking facility that plays a crucial role in locating, tracking, and communicating with its remote spacecraft.

However, there are instances when ISRO needs to communicate with or track a spacecraft that's positioned outside the coverage area of this antenna. Constructing new large antennas and control centers worldwide is a costly endeavor. To solve this, ISRO sought assistance from partner organizations. This approach not only proves cost-effective but also promotes collaborative efforts in international space exploration. Know how NASA and ESA are collaborating with ISRO in the Chandrayaan-3 mission:

ESA's Contribution:​

ESA ground stations on Earth have stayed connected with the spacecraft to ensure its successful operation. ESA is playing a pivotal role in the Chandrayaan-3 mission. It is utilizing its ground stations within the ESTRACK network to closely monitor the spacecraft's journey. Two ground stations, the ESA's 15-meter antenna in Kourou, French Guiana, and the 32-meter antenna at Goonhilly Earth Station in the U.K., have been employed to track the satellite, receive telemetry data, and relay commands between ISRO's Mission Operations Centre in Bengaluru and the Chandrayaan-3 satellite.

With the lunar landing attempt set for August 23, the ESA has further extended its support by deploying its 35-meter deep space antenna in New Norcia, Australia. This antenna will be critical during the Lunar Descent phase. It will provide real-time information about the Lander Module's health, location, and trajectory. These valuable scientific data will be received by the ground stations Kourou and Goonhilly and will be forwarded to the ISRO.

NASA's Involvement:​

NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) has been instrumental in providing telemetry and tracking coverage during Chandrayaan-3's powered descent phase. The network's DSS-36 and DSS-34 stations at the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, followed by DSS-65 at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex, are assisting in receiving crucial data from the spacecraft.

With the collaboration of ESA and NASA, ISRO is on its way to creating history and making India the 4th nation to execute a successful lunar landing mission.

How ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 got a tech boost from NASA and ESA

Ground stations from NASA and ESA are providing essential and continuous support to the ISRO for the Chandrayaan-3 moon landing.

tech.hindustantimes.com

 

[Skull and Bones]

We are forever indebted for their help, India lacks Deep Space network for non stop telemetry. Maybe that should be in agenda in near future.

 

[Vikramaditya-I]

Here is the list of people helped, ISRO has thanked them for it.

 

[epebble]

We are forever indebted for their help, India lacks Deep Space network for non stop telemetry. Maybe that should be in agenda in near future.

Utter waste. No point wasting resources duplicating antennas and ground link all over the globe when administrations freely share communication capacity. It is not like the antennas are overloaded with traffic. This is scientific research, no need for rivalry. That money can be put to better use for onboard instrumentation (payload) that produces useful science.

 

[indushek]

We are forever indebted for their help, India lacks Deep Space network for non stop telemetry. Maybe that should be in agenda in near future.

We have DSN facility built, located at Bayalalu.

https://www.aerospaceinindia.org/idsn-campus/

NASA's DSN however is much wider in coverage, given its facilities spread across the globe.

California USA, Madrid Spain, Canberra Australia. This ensures that the telemetry is continuous given Earth's rotation, as each of these can take over when others lose contact.

Not sure if we have any plans to build such facilities outside India as of now, given our limited budget.

Goldstone, California (35°, 243°)

Madrid, Spain (40°, 355°)

Canberra, Australia (-35°, 149°)

The facilities are located roughly 120 degrees apart along the lines of longitude. That means that each can cover a third of the sky in the plane of the solar system and as the Earth rotates and one facility starts to lose line-of-sight with a spacecraft, the next facility can take over communication with that spacecraft.

At each facility is an assortment of large parabolic dish antennae, including at least one dish that is 70 meters (230 feet) in diameter.

The DSN is currently communicating with more than 35 spacecraft that are distributed throughout the solar system. It's a busy network, usually operating at greater than 99%. The DSN is used by NASA, ESA, JAXA, and ISRO in support of their deep space missions. In addition to being used to transmit to spacecraft and receive data from spacecraft, the DSN is also used for radio telescope observations. Multiple dishes can be strung together to form giant synthetic aperture radio telescopes.
As a signal travels through space, it becomes weaker as its energy is spread over a greater area. For example, the signal received at Earth from Voyager's 20 watt transmitter is about 1x10^-23 watts and the signal received at Earth from the New Horizons spacecraft's 12 watt transmitter is 2.61x10^-21 watts. That's an incredibly weak signal that requires a very sensitive antenna.
The nice thing about a parabolic antenna is that energy from the received signal hits all over the surface of the dish and is reflected to a central point, combining all of the energy, amplifying the signal.

 

[buntalanlucu]

this reminds me of the old parable , of a duck in a farm who want to make delicious dish , he asked for help from other animals and all refused saying they are too busy.. then the duck labor hard to make a delicious meal by himself .. and wallaaa everyone in the farm said they want a portion , they DESERVE a portion , because they HELPED (? lol)

the entitlement and arrogance of NASA and ESA is beyond embarassing especially ESA who have zero accomplishment in space and only there because USA allow them to tag along