Indian Space Capabilities

[RPK]

The Hindu : News / National : Tubular structures on lunar surface, ideal landing sites


Terrain Mapping Camera on-board Chandrayaan-1 revealed such a formation in the Oceanus Procellarum area

Remnant tubular structures or tunnel-like formations from lunar volcanic flows in the past, which extend a couple of kilometres on the moon’s surface, could serve as ideal landing as well as human settlement sites for future missions, including Chandrayaan-II, according to some new findings from India’s Chandrayaan-1.

These findings were reported on Monday at the Sixth Chandrayaan-1 Scientific Meeting being held at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) here.

Data from the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC), one of the Indian instruments on-board the spacecraft, has revealed one such volcanic tube in the Oceanus Procellarum area of the moon (central longitude 58.317 deg. W and latitude 14.111 deg. N).

The remnants of volcanic tubes on the moon whose roofs have capsized and a trench or valley is created are called a rille system, which is a groove or long narrow depression on the lunar surface. The volcanic tube identified by the TMC comprises two cobra hood-shaped rilles, the longer one measuring 3.65 km in NE-SW direction and the smaller one measuring 0.73 km.

The interesting feature is that these rilles seem connected by an intermediate stretch of a two km-long and 360-metre-wide uncollapsed portion (see picture), which seems to be the roof of the lava tube that did not collapse for some reason, said A. S. Arya of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, who described the findings at the meeting.

More significantly, the uncollapsed part is very close to the surface, only 160 metre below. Its hollow interiors could be safe spots for lunar habitation, or even parking lunar landers for protection from the harsh impacts of interplanetary material, meteorite showers, solar wind and radiation.

“For future missions aimed at creating permanent base stations and human settlements on the moon, there is a need to identify such locales that have survived the onslaught of the past impacts and would provide safe shelters to human beings on the moon,” Dr. Arya said.

For instance, the Japanese mission Kaguya discovered a vertical hollow structure, but that is not suitable for habitation, Dr. Arya said. In a horizontal tubular structure, however, any lunar vehicle can just move along the rille into the tunnel structure for safe parking.

But the TMC findings could even become the starting point for identifying suitable locations for immediate missions such as Chandrayaan-II, which plans to land two lunar rovers, said M. Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-II. Chandrayaan-II has set itself the ambitious goals of sustaining the two rovers in the harsh lunar environment for as long as six months. All previous missions have landed in the sunlit area and have not been able to survive beyond a few weeks.

“We need to see how Chandrayaan-1 data can be used from an engineering point of view in terms of site terrain information and soil interactions to know where to land our rovers from this perspective,” Dr. Annadurai said.

Like Chandrayaan-1, its follow-up mission, which is likely to be flown during 2012-13, will also focus mostly on the higher lunar latitudes, Dr. Annadurai said.

“From an engineering point of view, we need to look at the rovers spending longer night hours. For optimal power utilisation, they will function in hibernation mode when there is no sunlight for generating power,” he said.

“So a suitable site could be the edge of some crater or a site near such volcanic tubes where they can retreat for hibernation. But a cross comparison of data from different Chandrayaan-1 experiments can tell us much more than just the TMC data. And such a trend has been evident at this meeting.”

With Russia already part of the project, Chandrayaan-II is also likely to have international collaboration, especially with all the principal investigators of the various experiments keen on carrying the work forward by collaborating among themselves in the future.

 

[RPK]

The Hindu : Front Page : Flight-testing of cryogenic stage of GSLV in April, says ISRO Chairman

TAMBARAM: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan on Monday said the flight- testing of the indigenous cryogenic stage of the Geo Stationary Launch Vehicle (GSLV) D3 would be conducted in April.

The vehicle would carry GAST-4, a communication satellite, he told reporters after receiving an honorary degree of Doctor of Science during the 5th convocation at the SRM University in Kattankulathur.

“Though we had several GSLV flights, we were using the Russian cryogenic stages,” he said.

As far as cryogenic engine and stages were concerned, ISRO had tested engines for 7,500 seconds.

“We have qualified the stage. The entire stage was filled and fired for its entire duration of 720 seconds at [the Liquid Propulsion Centre in] Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu and it was very successful,” Dr. Radhakrishnan said.

 

[Mister X]

3-D moon atlas will soon be available

DNA
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 11:21 IST

Ahmedabad: A lot of science was brought out and discussed on a cloudy Monday, in the sixth science meeting on the findings of Chandrayaan-1 at the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad. The success story of the moon mission echoed vibrantly in the institute designed by the original dreamer Vikram Sarabhai, who was repeatedly mentioned by scientists in their inaugural address.
You may also want to see

Attended by planning commission member K Kasturirangan, former chairman of ISRO G Madhavan Nair, PRL director JN Goswami and SAC director RR Navalgund, the two-day science meeting is one of the several attempts to analyse and make available the "several terabytes" worth of data gathered by the satellite on the mission. A 3-D atlas of the moon will be made available in the next six months.

In addition to the scientific data, Kasturirangan said the project has succeeded in igniting a million minds. "There are very few projects which succeed in doing this. I wish there are a billion minds that get ignited. We need a planetary research society to bring youngsters into the fold of science. Mars is the next target we hope to conquer by 2015, looking for extraterrestrial life," he said.

And if the celebrations are being taken up with aplomb, the scientists do not dither to admit their failures too. Nair candidly admitted that some functions of the mission failed, because of which they have been able to realise 95% of the set objectives of the mission. However, he asserted that one should not be disappointed as what has been achieved is also quite an achievement.

"Travelling 3,000 km into space is commendable, and if the data generated is seen, one will realise that the experiment has been handled very maturely," Dr Nair said.

3-D moon atlas will soon be available - dnaindia.com

 

[RPK]

The Hindu : Sci-Tech : India to build intelligent satellite for surveillance


India is set to develop a dedicated network-centric communication intelligence satellite for detecting conversations and espionage activities in the region, a top defence scientist said on Tuesday.

“We are in the process of designing and developing a spacecraft fitted with an intelligent sensor that will pick up conversations and communications across the borders,” Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL) director G. Bhoopathy told reporters here.

The Rs.100 crore satellite will be developed in partnership with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and launched in the lower earth orbit — about 500 km above the earth — on board the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km north-east of Chennai.

“The satellite fitted with the electronic sensor will be more powerful than the remote sensing satellites (IRSA) of ISRO. The spacecraft should be ready for launch by 2014,” Mr. Bhoopathy said on the margins of a preview on the first international conference on electronic warfare (EWCI 2010).

The Hyderabad-based DLRL, which functions under the aegis of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), is also developing a border network-centric electronic warfare sensor for surveillance on the Indian borders in the mountain range and desert areas.

“The electronic warfare (EW) sensor will be located on the mountain range facing Pakistan, China, Nepal and the northeast to detect troop or vehicular movement across the borders. Some of the sensors can also be deployed in the plains or desert for monitoring the ground situation in border areas,” Mr. Bhoopathy said.

Code-named “Divya Drushti” (foresight), the radars will be installed on the mountain tops from December this year onwards.

The Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) in Bangalore and DLRL are engaged in the design and development of EW systems indigenously and state-run defence behemoth Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) will manufacture the radars and the support systems in collaboration with the private sector.

DARE and BEL have rolled out Tarang radar warning receiver systems and its variants for fighter jets and transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

BEL has orders from the Indian Armed forces to supply EW system to the value of Rs. 710 crore in this fiscal and Rs. 900 crore in fiscal 2010-11.

Over the years, BEL supplied EW systems to the three armed services to the value of Rs.3,500 crore till fiscal 2008-09.

 

[RPK]

Chandrayaan-1 also found new types of rocks - India - The Times of India


AHMEDABAD: Yet another feather has been added to the cap of India’s Rs 386-crore lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1; it has not only discovered water
molecules but also new types of rocks. This was announced on Monday by Carle Pieters, principal investigator of Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3), a Nasa payload on board Chandrayaan-1 which detected water molecules along with indigenous Moon Impact Probe and Hyper Spectral Imager.

He was addressing scientists associated with Indian moon mission which won international acclaims and awards at the sixth Chandrayaan-1 scientific meeting, organised by Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), an autonomous organisation, under Isro. The scientific data from Chandrayaan-1 is being analysed at PRL.

Pieters said: "M3 has discovered new rock types which are very small. They are unusual and we are in the process of analysing them." Significantly, this discovery was made on the far side of the moon. Former Isro chiefs — K Kasturirangan, Madhavan Nair and U R Rao and a number of foreign delegates including a few associated with the Japanese mission to the moon, Kaguya, were present at the meeting which will end on Tuesday.

Pieters told TOI the type of minerals found in the new type of rocks is common. "But what is surprising is that their combination is uncommon. This is a very valuable piece of information," she said, adding geo chemists could analyse the data.

A scientist attached to Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre, A S Arya, told the gathering that an analysis of the high resolution imagery of the indigenous terrain mapping camera (TMC) has resulted in identifying "lunar tubes." He said the opinion among a section of scientists is that these "tubes" could be utilised for a potential human settlement in future. These tubes could provide much-needed protection to a human colony on the moon

 

[RPK]

Indian scientists discover a large cave on the Moon- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times


AHMEDABAD: Human habitation or a permanent base on the Moon could soon be a reality. After the discovery of water, scientists analysing the data of
Chandrayaan-I have now found a large cave on the lunar surface, which could possibly act as a natural shelter for humans.

“We have discovered a natural tunnel near the equator of the Moon which is even bigger than that discovered by the Japanese,” said AS Arya, scientist SF of Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre (SAC). “This is a empty volcanic tube, measuring about two kilometer in length and 360 meters in width. This could be a potential site for human settlement on moon,” Mr Arya told ET on the sidelines of a two-day conference at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) on Monday. Mr Arya will also be presenting a paper on the discovery at the LPC (Lunar and Planetary Science Conference) scheduled to be held at Houston from March 1-5.

“This is a horizontal cave and is much bigger than the Japanese discovery,” he said referring to the recent findings by a Japanese spacecraft, Kaguya. This spacecraft had discovered a tunnel which was 65 m wide and 80 m deep in the volcanic Marius hill range on the lunar surface. “This finding would go a long way in India’s quest to set up a permanent base on the Moon. Such wide tunnels could sustain underground lunar outposts, while the ceilings could help protect astronauts from space radiation, meteoroid impacts and wild temperature fluctuations (up 300 degree centrigrade) that is commonplace on the lunar surface,” Mr Arya explained.

The finding comes as a shot in the arm for the Indian scientists after Chandrayaan-I had recently discovered water on the Moon. There are similar lava tubes on Earth. They are formed when molten rock, flowing from a volcanic eruption, cools and hardens on top while the lava underneath continues to flow. If the lava drains completely, a cavern is left. Scientists have long suspected that such rock formations existed on the moon, but lacked evidence until now.

According to scientists, Lunar lava tubes are a potentially important location for a future lunar base, whether for local exploration and development, or as an outpost to serve exploration beyond the moon. Moreover, the lunar environment neither has an atmosphere nor a magnetic field, so the radiation from the sun can directly affect humans and severely damage our cells. So, on the lunar surface, one needs to get into areas where you can avoid radiation.

“The findings happened while the data from the TMC (Terrain Mapping Camera) was being analysed,” the scientist said. The TMC was one of the five Indian payload that was onboard Chandrayaan-I. “Moreover, this particular cave is situated near the equator where most of the lunar missions have landed so far,” he said.

 

[fanboi]

India has anti-satellite capability: DRDO

India has anti-satellite capability: DRDO

 

[gowthamraj]

thats good. . we want to test them soon. .

 

[al-hind]

why isn't this a sticky anymore??? mods care to elaborate on it please?

 

[Indiarox]

As results are shown more money will be pumped in
We require less scientists hence reduction in pay related finances
our expertise in composites helps keep costs down

 

[Isaq Khan]

Chandrayaan I finds ice near Moon's north pole


Washington, March 2, 2010: Using data from a NASA radar that flew aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists have detected ice deposits totalling at least an estimated 600 million metric tons near the moon’s north pole.

NASA’s Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, found more than 40 small craters ranging in size from 2 to 15 km in diameter with water ice, the US space agency announced Monday.

“The emerging picture from the multiple measurements and resulting data of the instruments on lunar missions indicates that water creation, migration, deposition and retention are occurring on the moon,” said Paul Spudis, principal investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

“The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought.”

“After analysing the data, our science team determined a strong indication of water ice, a finding which will give future missions a new target to further explore and exploit,” said Jason Crusan, programme executive for the Mini-RF Programme for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington.

The Mini-SAR’s findings are consistent with recent findings of other NASA instruments and add to the growing scientific understanding of the multiple forms of water found on the moon, NASA said.

The agency’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper discovered water molecules in the moon’s polar regions, while water vapour was detected by NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS.

Mini-SAR, a lightweight (less than 10 kg) imaging radar, and Moon Mineralogy Mapper are two of 11 instruments carried by the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1.

The Mini-SAR has imaged many of the permanently shadowed regions that exist at both poles of the moon. These dark areas are extremely cold and it has been hypothesised that volatile material, including water ice, could be present in quantity there.

The main science object of the Mini-SAR experiment is to map and characterise any deposits that exist.

Numerous craters near the poles of the moon have interiors that are in permanent sun shadow. These areas are very cold and water ice is stable there, essentially indefinitely.

Fresh craters show high degrees of surface roughness (high circular polarisation ratio -- CPR) both inside and outside the crater rim, caused by sharp rocks and block fields that are distributed over the entire crater area, NASA said.

However, Mini-SAR has found craters near the north pole that have high CPR inside, but not outside their rims. This relation suggests that the high CPR is not caused by roughness, but by some material that is restricted within the interiors of these craters.

“We interpret this relation as consistent with water ice present in these craters. The ice must be relatively pure and at least a couple of metres thick to give this signature,” NASA said.

The estimated amount of water ice potentially present is comparable to the quantity estimated solely from the previous mission of Lunar Prospector’s neutron data (several hundred million metric tons).

The variation in the estimates between Mini-SAR and the Lunar Prospector’s neutron spectrometer is due to the fact that it only measures to depths of about one-half metre, so it would underestimate the total quantity of water ice present, NASA said.

At least some of the polar ice is mixed with lunar soil and thus, invisible to the NASA radar, it said.

The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Science : Chandrayaan I finds ice near Moon's north pole

 

[xuxu1457]

First step of real anti-missile technology is finding and tracking the target missile at thousands miles away,this need long-range early warning radar or early-warning satellites,but India have not this system,and this is only the first step;That's why others don't believe of Indian Claims

 

[jbond197]

First step of real anti-missile technology is finding and tracking the target missile at thousands miles away,this need long-range early warning radar or early-warning satellites,but India have not this system,and this is only the first step;That's why others don't believe of Indian Claims

Dude, We all know what our strength and weaknesses are but why are you Chineese feeling pains for us. Let us bear our own failures/sucesses. No body is asking any Chinese to believe any of our claims. On the contrary,nobody believe in what CCP claims all the time. so be happy and keep dreaming, buddy..

 

[imran iqbal]

First step of real anti-missile technology is finding and tracking the target missile at thousands miles away,this need long-range early warning radar or early-warning satellites,but India have not this system,and this is only the first step

Another enthusiastic green horn joined CCP bandwagon.

Which anti-missile system are you referring ?To counter SRBM/ MRBM/ IRBM/ ICBM or SLBM ? Endo-Atmospheric or Exo-Atmospheric missile shield ? How much range and RADAR coverage is needed to neutralize warhead ? Is it feasible to neutralize decoy on your or hostile nation territory ? What if US GPS knowingly transfer you wrong coordinates ? How Indian Satellites are not able to track a bogey ? Do you know classified info of Indian sat capabilities ?

Or just for the starters, how many sat assets does India have in space and how can satellites track a cruise missile or srbm?

That's why others don't believe of Indian Claims

Rant without substance.

 

[jagjitnatt]

Dude, We all know what our strength and weaknesses are but why are you Chineese feeling pains for us. Let us bear our own failures/sucesses. No body is asking any Chinese to believe any of our claims. On the contrary,nobody believe in what CCP claims all the time. so be happy and keep dreaming, buddy..

Buddy its their job. They get paid for this. Read 50 Cent Party - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

shchinese exposed