Indian Space Capabilities

[Khajur]

India completes design of Chandrayaan-2

India has completed the design of Chandrayaan-2, its next mission to the moon -- this time in collaboration with Russia that would have a lander and rover that can collect samples of the lunar soil and analyse them and send back the data.
"Right now, the design has been completed. We had a joint review with Russian scientists in Bengaluru," Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, G Madhavan Nair, told PTI.

According to the Bangalore-headquartered space agency, the Chandrayaan-2 mission would have an orbital flight vehicle constituting an Orbital Craft and a Lunar Craft that would carry a soft landing system up to Lunar Transfer Trajectory.

The target location for the lander-rover would be identified using data from instruments of Chandrayaan-1, India's own and first unmanned mission to the Moon [ Images ] launched on October 22 last year.

While ISRO will be developing the orbiter, it will be Russia's job to make the lander and rover. Additional scientific payloads would be acquired from international scientific community.

"Next (now that design has been completed) we will go towards prototype building, which will be taken up next year," Nair, also secretary in the Department of Space, said.

Nair said ISRO has learnt plenty of lessons from Chandrayaan-1 mission, particularly on the thermal and redundancy management fronts and would seek to improve systems in Chandrayaan-2, slated towards the end of 2012.

"I think we have got very valuable inputs on the heat radiation from the moon's surface and so on. Accordingly, the thermal design of the future aircraft can be addressed," he said.

"Radiation is much beyond our expectations, so we will have to see how the radiation hardening has to be strengthened."

"Then, in redundancy management also, there are some inputs which are available from this (Chandrayaan-1), which we will try to incorporate in Chandrayaan-2."

The ISRO Chairman said contingency operations undertaken by the organisation following the failure of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft's onboard star sensor earlier this year have worked well and "this is (now) as precise as it was earlier."

"We are able to locate the cameras at specific locations," he said noting some of the stereo images that have come recently.

"The fact that we were able to point the spacecraft towards the Earth and capture the (recent) solar eclipse, shows the accuracy of the system."

Nair said 95 per cent of the scientific objectives of Chandrayaan-1 mission have been achieved. "Another five per cent, what's left out, we will try to take up in the next season which is starting in October so that we can complete all the observations."

India completes design of Chandrayaan-2: Rediff.com news

 

[Sam Dhanraj]

ISRO-NASA Joint Experiment To Search for Water Ice on the Moon​

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and NASA performed a unique joint experiment today (Aug. 21, 2009), that could yield additional information on the possibility of existence of ice in a permanently shadowed crater near the North pole of the moon. Known as Bi-Static Experiment, it involved ISROs Chandrayaan-1 and NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft. Currently, Chandrayaan-1 and LRO are orbiting the Moon. The two spacecraft passed close enough to one another when they were over the lunar North pole to attempt this interesting experiment.

Both Chandrayaan-1 and LRO are equipped with a NASA Miniature Radio Frequency (RF) instrument that functions as a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), known as Mini-SAR on Chandrayaan-1 and Mini-RF on LRO. Chandrayaan-1 in transmit mode transmitted the signals and LRO received the reflected signals. The experiment used both radars to point at Erlanger Crater at the same time. The Bi-Static observations were made on August 21, 2009 at 00:30 hours (IST). Before the experiment commenced, LRO executed a minor manoeuvre to adjust its orbit to the well-established Chandrayaan-1 orbit. The data was collected for about 4 minutes. MiniSAR of Chandrayaan-1 was fine tuned for making observations in terms of pulse width, range rate sampling as well as its 200 km orbit height. The operations went on as planned.

All Chandrayaan-1 operations related to Bi-Static experiment were executed from Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Peenya. Science Data was immediately downloaded over Johns Hopkins Universitys Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the ground station that had the visibility. Later today morning (August 21, 2009), during Chandrayaan-1s visibility over Indian Deep Space Networks antennas at Byalalu, near Bangalore, the data was again obtained along with spacecrafts orientation information when Bi-Static observations were performed.

For the Bi-Static experiment, the Mini-SAR on Chandrayaan-1 performed its normal SAR imaging (transmitting and receiving) while the Mini-RF was made to receive only. The two instruments looked at the same location from different angles. Comparing the signal that bounces straight back to Chandrayaan-1 with the signal that bounces at a slight angle to LRO provides unique information about the lunar surface.

Observations from today`s experiment are being analysed by scientists from ISRO and NASA.


Note: They have changed the ISRO website's look and feel but as usual it takes long time to load up...a common issue with Government Websites

 

[EjazR]

Small-town woman Khushboo Mirza broke stereotypes to reach ISRO

THE ENTRANCE to Chaugori Mohalla, a small Muslim locality in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha town, about 200 km from Delhi, isn’t the least bit inviting. A sixfoot- wide serpentine stretch, rutted and grimy, lies beyond — the only way into the neighbourhood. Today, however, it does not deter a stream of people eager to visit the house of the Mirzas, a short distance in. The woman they have come to meet, Khushboo Mirza, opens the door and welcomes them warmly. Khushboo is soon joined by her spirited mother, Farhat, and the mother-daughter duo proceed to smash one stereotype after another in an hour-long chat. “Hindi or English?” I ask Khushboo. “English will be fine,” comes the confident reply from the 23-year-old, who studied in the local Hindi-medium school till Class 10.

The flow of guests to the Mirza home is growing everyday. “I had never imagined that I would become such an icon,” says Khushboo, as her mother glances at their six-seat dining table, now covered with commemorative inscriptions and bouquets. Khushboo, an engineer with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is the youngest member of the team of 12 engineers of the Check-Out Division of India’s maiden moon mission, Chandrayaan- I. Her task was to carry out the vacuum, thermal and assembly examinations in different simulated conditions on various components of the satellite. “We had to check and see how the satellite would perform in space,” says the engineer, who joined India’s premier body for space research in 2006.

More people have come to congratulate the Mirzas since Chandrayaan- I was launched in October 2008 than have visited the Mirzas on Eid in several years put together. “Kai log to sochte hain ki Khushboo chaand par gayee thi (Some think Khushboo had gone to the moon and ask her when she returned),” Farhat chuckles.

A few years back, however, the Mirzas were in very different circumstances. Farhat, widowed at 30 after her husband Sikandar passed away in 1994, worked at the family’s petrol pump to pay her children’s school fees and keep the house running. Khushboo was seven at that time; her younger sister Mehak, now a student of engineering at Moradabad Institute of Technology, was four; and her older brother, Khushtar, now a B.Tech graduate from Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, was 10. “My husband was an engineer and it was his dream to see his daughters excel. And I knew it wasn’t possible without giving them a good education,” says Farhat. For the Mirzas, education for women wasn’t a novel idea as Farhat is a graduate from a Moradabad college. Moreover, Farhat’s sister teaches English at a public school in Dehradoon and her two nieces are doing their PhD in the US. “I taught my children to reach for the stars,” states the 45-year-old proudly. They did.

After her Class 10 examinations, Khushboo, a district level volleyball player, joined the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and later applied for a BTech at the same university. She became the first girl to fight an election in AMU. Though she did not win, she managed to encourage other girls to take the plunge, one of whom even won election the following year. Subsequent to her graduation, Khushboo received a job offer from Adobe Software, but gave it up in October 2006 to join ISRO for a salary much lower than what Adobe offered. Farhat, who accompanied her daughter to ISRO training programmes across the country, says there was no question of rejecting the ISRO offer for the extra money Adobe offered. “Khushboo was eager to contribute to Indian science and I was only happy to let her do so,” she says.

For a year and 10 months, Khushboo says, she worked conscientiously with her team to accomplish the mission. “I observed my Ramzan fasts, prayed and even celebrated Eid at the testing centre,” she says, spelling out that she is no different from any other Muslim woman who follows Islam and its customs. However, she acknowledges that she owes her success to her family’s liberal background.

Back in Amroha for a 15-day winter break, Kushboo is acclimatising herself to the newfound attention. “I was only a small part of a big mission, of a bigger dream that the country had seen. The praise I’m getting is overwhelming.”

 

[garibnawaz]

Indian Space Research Organisation is all set to launch Oceansat-2, an exclusive satellite to track marine life and identify potential fishing zones in September.

This was disclosed by Y V N Krishnamurthy, the director of ISRO's Regional Remote Sensing Service Centre while addressing a symposium in Coimbatore on Monday.

Krishnamurthy mentioned that all pre-launch tests on the functional aspects of the satellite have been successfully completed.

ISRO to launch Oceansat-2 in September: Rediff.com news

GB

 

[Sam Dhanraj]

Mate..It would have been better if you posted this news in

http://www.defence.pk/forums/india-defence/4373-indian-space-capabilities-57.html

It helps us finding the relevant news in one section of the forum.

 

[AnGrz_Z_K_Jailer]

bro gharib Nawaz it's a very good news!
Many many congrats to ISRO team

 

[RPK]

Univ builds first all-Swiss satellite, choose ISRO for launch :: Samay Live

Lausanne, Aug 25 (PTI) Students here have built the first all-Swiss cube satellite to study the upper atmosphere and test low-cost positioning system and have turned to ISRO to put it in orbit.

Built by students at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), the 10x10x10 cm Cubesat -- named as the SwissCube -- weighs less than a kilogram and is equipped with a mini telescope besides over 1,000 components.

Initially, the satellite was to be launched by an European rocket which ran into delays prompting EPFL to opt for ISRO which offered a "reasonable" deal.

The satellite is designed to take photos of the "airglow" -- the faint bands of green and mauve light caused by high-energy radiation from the sun colliding with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere.

"SwissCube was delivered to ISRO earlier this month and would be launched by its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) - C14 next month," senior EPFL scientist Anton Ivanov told a group of visiting Indian journalists here.

SwissCube is not only small in size, but also low cost, having been put together from commercially available parts.

"The entire project, including the launch fee, cost us 300,000 euros and a major portion was spent on allowances to students who worked after completing their semesters," Muriel Noca, Project Manager of SwissCube, told PTI.

 

[Screaming Skull]

PM inaugurates new campus for Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST)​

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh inaugurating the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) in Thiruvananthapuram via Video Conferencing, in New Delhi on Tuesday.​

Functions were conducted simultaneously at the Prime Ministers residence in New Delhi and at Valiamala at the southern end of the country, to mark the occasion. While the Prime Minister and three of his Cabinet colleagues and the top scientific community in the country were present at the function in New Delhi, four of the Kerala Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition and top people of the IIST and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) attended the function in Valiamala.

Besides the formal inauguration of the IIST campus, the functions also featured the distribution of ISRO awards to individual scientists and teams in IRSO and Defence Research Development Organisation for the contributions they had made in 2007 for the advance of Indian Space Science. While a few of the awardees, received the recognition directly from the Prime Minister, many others were honoured at the function at Valiamala.

The Prime Minister also inaugurated a new Space Complex of the ISRO, by tele-link, at Sadiqnagar in New Delhi. This complex would set going ISROs endeavours to popularise space technologys people-oriented and development-oriented services such as tele-medicine, tele-education, disaster management and village resource management in the northern parts of the country, ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, said at the function in New Delhi.

The director of IIST, B.N. Suresh, addressing the function at Valiamala, said that the institution would be shifting to the new campus by January 2010. Post-graduate courses in space science disciplines would start at the IIST at the beginning of the next academic year. The institution has just completed admission to the third batch of students in B.Tech. programmes in Avionics, Aerospace Engineering and Physical Sciences.

With the addition of the third batch, this institution, started in 2007, will have nearly 450 students on its rolls. It is now functioning in the campus of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Veli, near here.

The IIST would be having its observatory and associated laboratories at Upper Sanatorium in the Ponmudi Hills in Thiruvananthapuram district. Eight hectares of land in the Ponmudi Hills for the observatory and associated facilities and 22 hectares of land out of the new 40-hectare campus at Valiamala were provided to the institution by the State government free of cost.

The upcoming fully residential campus at Valiamala will house the academic blocks, research laboratories, library, information centre, computer centre, administrative area, convocation hall, residential complex for faculty and support staff, students activity centre, health care centre, health club and sports complex. In addition to hostels for students, there will also be studio type apartments in the campus for research students.

Those who attended the function at Valiamala included Ministers M.A. Baby, K.P. Rajendran, N.K. Premachandran, and M. Vijayakumar and Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy.

PM inaugurates new campus for IIST @ The Hindu

 

[sidharth]

Chandrayaan-2 design review completed

August 16, 2009, (Sawf News) - ISRO recently completed a joint review of the Chandrayaan-2 design with the Russian scientists.

"Right now, the design has been completed. We had a joint review with Russian scientists here," said ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair.

The Chandrayaan-2 is a joint Indo-Russian project with each agency putting in around Rs425 crore. It is expected to take off towards the end of 2012.

It will consist of an orbiter made by ISRO and a lander made by Russian Space Agency Roscosmos.

The lander will possibly have two robotic moon rovers which will be jointly designed and developed by India and Russia.

The landing site is yet to be identified but will be on the far side of the moon, with South Pole Aitkin (SPA) basin being a prime candidate. Imagery from Chandrayaan-1 is beings used to select the site.

The instrument package on board the orbiter is yet to be finalized. It could consist of Terrain mapping camera, 400-4000nm hyper spectral Imager, Low energy X-ray spectrometer (CCD-array)and Gamma ray, neutron, alpha spectrometer.

Chandrayaan-2 will be launched using a GSLV Mk III. The complete spacecraft will weigh 2,700 kg.

Russian press reports place the weight of the Moon lander at 400 kg.

Chandrayaan-2 design was initially completed in December 2008.

Using the experience gained from Chandrayaan 1, particularly the more than expected radiation heating of the spacecraft, ISRO revised the design of Chandrayaan-2.

ISRO is contemplating the use of nuclear power for the lunar orbiter in collaboration with Bhaba Atomic Research Center.

"We are thinking of powering some parts of Chandrayaan-2 with nuclear power and it will power the spacecraft when it revolves around the dark side of the moon," Madhavan Nair told media in early August.

 

[AnGrz_Z_K_Jailer]

India loses contact with spacecraft Chandrayaan

Link : India loses contact with spacecraft Chandrayaan

India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft is lost in space. ISRO has confirmed that radio contact with Chandrayaan-1 was lost at 1.30 am. The Health of Chandrayaan-I subsystems is being analysed, according to ISRO. It was launched in Sriharikota in October, 2008.

Experts say the mission has completed its objective: to reach the moon and place India's flag on the moon. India is the fourth country to accomplish that. Chandrayaan has delivered lots of crucial space data to India. It has also been studying whether there's water on the moon.

NDTV's Science Editor, Pallava Bagla, says "Chandrayaan shold not be written off. ISRO may manage to recover contact with it. But earlier this year, it faced over-heating and other technical problems. Yes, Chandrayaan is on its last legs, but it has met its objective".

The spacecraft has completed 312 days in orbit, making more than 3400 orbits around the Moon. India has spent close to Rs 400 crore on the Chandryaan mission.

 

[warlock21]

Well acc. to News on some TV channels.... 90% objective of this mission is complete as per the scientific data received till now.....

They are terming this as a " Glitch"... rather then mission failure.

this mission was meant for 2 years in orbit.. as per abv post 312 days completed till now... so its not OK to call it a mission Failur... but offcourse Standards are need to raised for other or I should say upcoming space mission(s)

 

[AnGrz_Z_K_Jailer]

Warlock21 thanks for you valuable post... But still it's a sad news..now ISRO should maintain good standards chandrayaan II to avoid so called 'glitches'.

Thanks

 

[shchinese]

Well acc. to News on some TV channels.... 90% objective of this mission is complete as per the scientific data received till now.....

They are terming this as a " Glitch"... rather then mission failure.

this mission was meant for 2 years in orbit.. as per abv post 312 days completed till now... so its not OK to call it a mission Failur... but offcourse Standards are need to raised for other or I should say upcoming space mission(s)

however it does demonstrate how unreliable "made in india" product is.

is such "glitch" systems ready for manned mission? are you going to rely on such "glitch"s for your nuclear weapon delivery system?

 

[shchinese]

Warlock21 thanks for you valuable post... But still it's a sad news..now ISRO should maintain good standards chandrayaan II to avoid so called 'glitches'.

Thanks

under the conditions that:

1. chandrayaan II can actually be launched. where is the rocket for launching such payload? india simply don't have it.

2. chandrayaan II can actually be built, within less than 30 years. check the history of Arjun/LCA.

3. chandrayaan II actually can contribute to the "space capacity" of india. I mean, when a tiny fighter named LCA takes more than 30 years of design and testing,and you guys still couldn't make it right, do you seriously believe such chandrayaan II done in a few years is more advanced than the LCA?



this is just some propaganda to make you guys feel excited, to make you believe your life has some real meaning - propaganda.

 

[indiatech]

however it does demonstrate how unreliable "made in india" product is.

is such "glitch" systems ready for manned mission? are you going to rely on such "glitch"s for your nuclear weapon delivery system?

shame that you get unbanned again and banned again and keep throwing rubish.

Are you flying in our manned mission that you are so scared?

Keep watching for Chandrayaan-2 .