ISRO Chandrayan 1, mission failure!

A sudden puff of electro-magnetic radiation caused by a burst of sun spot activity may have knocked off Chandrayaan-1, India's ambitious Rs 400 crore mission to the moon.

Senior scientists monitoring the Chandrayaan-1 here feel that there was an unusual spike in levels of electro-magnetic radiation levels that could have been triggered by sun spot activity.

This hit Chandrayaan-1 and knocked its onboard computer system resulting in the snapping of radio communication links between the spacecraft and the mother station at Indian Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore.

ISRO had anticipated high levels of electro-magnetic radiation, but what happened on Saturday early morning as the spacecraft emerged from the back side of the moon was an unexpected `accident'. In other words, Chandrayaan-1 just ran into a headlong crash with a massive cloud of highly charged particles caused by sunspot activity.

Every 11 years the sun develops `spots' that let out huge clouds of charged particles that can travel to the outer limits of the solar system. It is known to knock out communication satellites around the earth. These particles do not reach the earth in high doses as the atmosphere enveloping the earth acts as a shield.

Scientists say that Chandrayaan-1 had been shielded to withstand double the dose of radiation that was expected. The calculation of the dose was given by the US based NASA.

The spacecraft was also baked by direct solar heat and radiated lunar heat resulting in a huge jump in the internal temperature. As a result, the ground mission had to shut down some of the onboard systems early on.

All these would be factored in when Chandrayaan-2 goes for the manufacturing stage. Chandrayaan-2 is expected to be launched late 2012 or early 2013.

The abrupt end to Chandrayaan-1 would not affect the second lunar mission, sources here said adding that ISRO has learnt some critical lessons.

An assessment committee would now analyse the available data to identify the core problems, including the radiation doses.

"The primary lesson learnt is that we have to have a detailed understanding and knowledge of the environment we are working with. There was a higher level of radiation around the moon than assessed that caused the failure. In future, we will have to use devices that are more resistant to radiation," ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair said.

The launch of Chandrayaan-1 last October put India in an elite club of countries with moon missions: the United States, Russia, Japan, China and members of the European Space Agency. The mission was part of India's effort to assert its power in space and claim some of the business opportunities there. One focus was to prospect the lunar surface for natural resources, including uranium for nuclear fuel.

Ten months after it was launched, India's maiden moon mission the ambitious Chandrayaan-1 came to an abrupt end today after ISRO lost communication with the spacecraft, cutting short the dream odyssey that was expected to last two years.

In this Sept. 18, 2008 file photo, The Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft, India's first unmanned mission to the Moon, is seen as it is unveiled at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Satellite Center in Bangalore. Scientists at India's national space agency said Saturday that all communication links with the country's only satellite orbiting the moon have snapped and they were unable to send commands to the spacecraft. Radio contact with Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was abruptly lost early Saturday, said a statement issued by the ISRO.

"The mission is definitely over. We have lost contact with the spacecraft," said Project Director of the Chandrayaan-1 mission M Annadurai.

However, he said: "It (Chandrayaan-1) has done its job technically...100 per cent. Scientifically also, it has done almost 90-95 percent of its job".

The two-year mission, launched on October 22 last year with much fanfare, was abandoned early Saturday after the after radio contact with the mooncraft was abruptly lost at 0130 hours.

The Deep Space Network at Byalalu near here received the data from the 1,380 kg Chandrayaan-1, which carried 11 instruments on board, including six from overseas, during the previous orbit up to 0025 hours.

ISRO is conducting detailed review of the telemetry data from the spacecraft. "We will analyse as to what happened," Annadurai said.

Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, launched by homegrown PSLV-C11 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, has completed 312 days in orbit, making more than 3,400 orbits around the moon.

It has provided large volume of data from sophisticated sensors such as terrain mapping camera, hyper-spectral imager and moon mineralogy mapper, meeting most of the scientific objectives of the mission.

India terminates moon mission, ISRO chief to meet PM

India Sunday decided to terminate its first unmanned moon mission as contact could not be re-established with the spacecraft Chandrayaan, Indian Space Research organisation (ISRO) Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said, adding that he would meet the prime minister next week to brief him about the development.

"We are disappointed with what has happened, but we have managed to salvage a large volume of data," Nair told reporters here.

"We are content with the result," he said, adding that nearly 95 percent of the mission's objectives have been completed.

"Nearly 70,000 images of the moon have been captured during the mission. We were also conducting joint experiments with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists and sharing signals received from our spacecraft," he said.

Chandrayaan-1, launched in October last year, sent last message 00.25 IST Saturday and the space agency's Deep Space Network (DSN) lost radio contact with the spacecraft five minutes later.

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