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Indian Space Capabilities

Mods, can you warn this guy to stop posting in this thread?

It is obvious he has nothing to contribute here except inanities. He is not even posting on the subject.
 
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Back to the topic please - India's space program only. And please, no more sarcasm, or bans will follow.

This is not the thread to be discussing India's poverty, allocation of resources, castes systems etc. etc.

Start a different thread in the economy and development section if you want to discuss those issues.
 
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Chandrayaan eyes ice on moon



Chandrayaan eyes ice on moon


Manoj K Das
First Published : 13 Jan 2009 02:54:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 13 Jan 2009 09:14:42 AM IST




KOCHI: In what could be a very significant scientific breakthrough, Indian and global space agencies onboard Chandrayaan are waiting with bated breath for a final confirmation of the presence of ice at the lunar poles.

This week India will move Chandrayaan to take a second and closer look into the depths of a small crater on the south pole to confirm the presence of ice after the initial inference of data suggested a strong possibility of this.

Sources told to The New Indian Express that Chandrayaan payloads detected the presence of ‘real hard surface’ inside a small crater sitting next to the Shackleton Crater. Payloads of ISRO and NASA have recorded this unique feature.

But it is too early to conclude that it may be a sheet of ice, sources said. “Such hard surface is very uncharacteristic of the lunar surface. The moon’s upper crust is very dusty. Though the dust percentage would be proportionately reduced inside the crater, the possibility of such a hard crust is food for thought,” they said.

The suspected presence of ice was first detected by an S-band radar that can look into dark abysses where sunlight doesn’t reach. The S-band rays reflect from targets and onboard computers analyse the feedback.

“A couple of instruments on Chandrayaan have given the same inference.

The satellite will be made to focus on the crater once again. This is to verify the first input. The data will be calibrated and cross-checked with input received from other payloads,” sources said.

The presence of ice will give a tremendous boost to global efforts to use the moon as a prospective transit point for inter-planetary missions and future habitat. Apart from iron, the Chandrayaan has detected the presence of magnesium on the lunar surface. But concrete information regarding the presence of Helium-3, the much-sought-after gas considered to be a potential source of power generation, is yet to be recorded.

“There is so much data pouring in every day. This needs to be analysed and translated into scientific information,” sources said. The ISRO is planning a total review of the Chandrayaan data in the third week of this month.

Sources said all partner agencies would take part in the first review meet scheduled for January 29 when a formal announcement of materials detected till date is expected to be made.
 
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478291 : Technology : ISRO processes propellant booster for Mars programme

ISRO processes propellant booster for Mars programme

Published: January 15,2009

Kochi

The Indian Space Research Organisation has recently commissioned a world class solid propellant plant at Sriharikota, where the 200 tonne propellant booster meant for the' Mars programme' was processed, an official of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre said.

"Two months back, we commissioned a world class solid propellant plant at Sriharikota, where we are able to process the 200 tonnes propellant booster meant for the Mars three programme, which will be commissioned in two years," M Chandradathan, director of SHAR, said, delivering the K Unnikrishan Memorial lecture here last night.

On the success of Chandrayaan I, he said it was the result of a team effort under the"visionary leadership" of ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair.

Referring to criticism on the need to have launched Chandrayaan-1 when there had been similar launches all over the world years back, he said ISRO's aim when they started the rocket launch programme in 1964-65 was not for going to the moon or landing on the moon.
 
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Mods, can you warn this guy to stop posting in this thread?

It is obvious he has nothing to contribute here except inanities. He is not even posting on the subject.

Why are u so upset ? He has every right to post whatever he feels right. Loosing temper is the first sign of defeat. I enjoy his posts. He does lots of home work before posting.

RK
 
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Day in Pics - Economic Times


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Chandrayaan beams back 40,000 images in 75 days-India-The Times of India

15 Jan 2009, 0214 hrs IST, Srinivas Laxman, TNN
MUMBAI: Forty thousand and counting. The Rs 386-crore Indian Moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, which completes a flawless 100 days around January 30 has transmitted more than 40,000 images of different types since its launch on October 22, 2008, which many in ISRO believe is quite a record compared to the lunar flights of other nations.

ISRO officials estimated that if more than 40,000 images have been transmitted by Chandrayaan's cameras in 75 days, it worked out to nearly 535 images being sent daily. They are first transmitted to Indian Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore, from where they are flashed to ISRO's telemetry, tracking and command network at Bangalore.

They said some of these images have a resolution of up to five metres providing a sharp and clear picture of the Moon's surface. On the other hand, they said many images sent by some of the other missions had a 100-metre resolution.

On November 26, the indigenous Terrain Mapping Camera, which was first activated on October 29, 2008, took shots of peaks along with craters. This came as a surprise to ISRO officials because the Moon consists largely only of craters.

Buoyed by the success of Chandrayaan-1, ISRO is now planning a more ambitious lunar venture around 2020 after the Chandrayaan-2 in 2012: a manned mission. This was stated by none other than the man behind India's maiden lunar mission, Mylswamy Annadurai, Chandrayaan-1's project director, while speaking to TOI recently.

Annadurai said around 2015, ISRO is embarking on a manned mission to the low earth orbit, which is 2000 km above the Earth. "An Indian on the Moon is, therefore, certainly the next logical step and ISRO is definitely considering it,'' he said.

On November 14, India's first spaceman Rakesh Sharma said the landing of the indigenous 29-kg Moon Impact Probe on the lunar surface was the first step towards establishing the capabilities for a subsequent human flight to the Moon by India, the probe was one of the 11 scientific payloads on Chandrayaan-1.

They cited the case of China and Japan which are working on a manned mission to the Moon around 2020 apart from the US. "Keeping this in view can India lag behind in this human race to the Moon?'' a space expert from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research requesting anonymity asked.

With regards to Chandrayaan-1, a meeting of all the principal investigators of the different scientific experiments is being held in Bangalore on January 29 to review the preliminary results.
 
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Research key to progress: Kalam-Pune-Cities-The Times of India

Answering a question on the criticism of India's spending on space missions, Kalam said, "I asked the same question to the director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) after the Chandrayaan mission. I was told that Isro spends 98 percent of it's budget on putting communication and geo-sensing satellites in space. These satellites enable fast communication, and do sensing of critical resources and water. The remaining two percent has to be spent on moon and Mars missions because they have certain characteristics that will make them strategically important in the years to come."
 
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NASA - NASA Radar Provides First Look Inside Moon?s Shadowed Craters

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WASHINGTON -- Using a NASA radar flying aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, scientists are getting their first look inside the moon's coldest, darkest craters.

The Mini-SAR instrument, a lightweight, synthetic aperture radar, has passed its initial in-flight tests and sent back its first data. The images show the floors of permanently-shadowed polar craters on the moon that aren't visible from Earth. Scientists are using the instrument to map and search the insides of the craters for water ice.

"The only way to explore such areas is to use an orbital imaging radar such as Mini-SAR," said Benjamin Bussey, deputy principal investigator for Mini-SAR, from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "This is an exciting first step for the team which has worked diligently for more than three years to get to this point."

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The images, taken on Nov. 17, 2008, cover part of the Haworth crater at the moon's south pole and the western rim of Seares crater, an impact feature near the north pole. Bright areas in each image represent either surface roughness or slopes pointing toward the spacecraft. Further data collection by Mini-SAR and analysis will help scientists to determine if buried ice deposits exist in the permanently shadowed craters near the moon's poles.

"During the next few months we expect to have a fully calibrated and operational instrument collecting valuable science data at the moon," said Jason Crusan, program executive for the Mini-RF Program for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate in Washington.

Mini-SAR is one of 11 instruments on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 and one of two NASA-sponsored contributions to its international payload. The other is the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer that will provide the first map of the entire lunar surface at high spatial and spectral resolution. Data from the two NASA instruments will contribute to the agency's increased understanding of the lunar environment as it implements America's space exploration plan, which calls for robotic and human missions to the moon.

Chandrayaan-1 launched from India's Satish Dhawan Space Center on Oct. 21 and began orbiting the moon Nov. 8. The Applied Physics Laboratory performed the final integration and testing on Mini-SAR. It was developed and built by the Naval Air Warfare Center and several other commercial and government contributors. The Applied Physics Laboratory's Satellite Communications Facility is Chandrayaan-1's primary ground station in the Western Hemisphere.

For more information about the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, visit:

Moon Mineralogy Mapper -

For more information about Chandrayaan-1, visit:

WelCome to Chandrayaan
 
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ISRO begins work on Chandrayaan-II project- ET Cetera-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

ISRO begins work on Chandrayaan-II project
17 Jan 2009, 1923 hrs IST, PTI

CHENNAI: ISRO has begun working on the Rs 425-crore second unmanned moon mission to be launched by early 2012 following the success of
Chandrayaan-I, a top ISRO official said here on Staurday.

Chandrayaan-II will focus on soil and mineral exploration on the lunar surface with the help of a robotic device and send back data, Chandrayaan Project Director Mayilsamy Annadurai told reporters here.

The work had begun on the project and it was likely to be launched by end of 2011 or early 2012, he said.

ISRO plans to send a manned flight to space in 2015 and the manned mission to the moon in 2020, he added.

About Chandrayaan-I, he said it has beamed 40,000 pictures since its launch.

The stakeholders of the project would meet soon to discuss the information beamed by India's successful lunar mission, Annadurai said.
 
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India adopts ATCi’s Warrior Satellite Surveillance and Monitoring Systems
 
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