Chandrayaan-1
| Chandrayaan-1 | ||||||||||||||||
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 Chandrayaan-1: scheme of the structure of the orbiter. |
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| NSSDC ID | 2008-052A | |||||||||||||||
| Mission goal | Earth moon | |||||||||||||||
| Client | ISRO | |||||||||||||||
| Launcher | Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle | |||||||||||||||
| construction | ||||||||||||||||
| Takeoff mass | 1,304 kg (at start) | |||||||||||||||
| Instruments | ||||||||||||||||
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10 |
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| Course of the mission | ||||||||||||||||
| Start date | October 22, 2008 | |||||||||||||||
| launch pad | Satish Dhawan Space Center | |||||||||||||||
| End date | August 29, 2009 | |||||||||||||||
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Chandrayaan-1 ( Hindi च्हन्द्रयान 'lunar vehicle', Hindi Chandra for moon , yaan for car, vehicle ) was a space probe of the Indian space agency ISRO , which was launched on October 22, 2008 for the moon and was to orbit it for at least two years, among other things for water ice to look for. The mission ended in August 2009 after technical systems had failed and contact with the probe was broken on August 28, 2009 at 20:00 UTC . But it is still considered a great success. Chandrayaan-1 had been in space for 312 days and had orbited the moon more than 3,400 times. In March 2017, NASA announced that the probe had been rediscovered in a lunar orbit through cooperation between several radio telescopes.
This was India's first mission to go beyond Earth orbit. Its aim was to test and improve India's technological capabilities in space and to obtain scientific information from the lunar surface. In addition, a hard-hitting daughter probe was used, which recorded measurement data as it fell to the surface of the moon. The total cost of the mission was estimated at approximately Indian rupees 3.86 billion ( US $ 57 million ); this made Chandrayaan-1 the cheapest lunar mission to date.
technology
The probe has a cubic shape with an edge length of about 1.5 meters and weighed 1380 kg when launched , the mass after launching into the lunar orbit was 675 kg. The construction is based on the flight-proven IRS earth observation satellite.
The energy was supplied by a 750 watt solar module and a lithium-ion battery for storage . The propulsion system used two fuels and was used for pivoting into lunar orbit and for attitude control . The spacecraft was three-axis stabilized and used attitude control nozzles and gyroscopes . Star sensors, accelerometers and an inertial measuring unit were used for navigation . The communication to the remote control took place in the S-band , the scientific data was transmitted in the X-band .
Moon Impact Probe
In addition, the 29 kilogram Moon Impact Probe (MIP) was on board, which at the beginning of the mission detached itself from the orbiter at a height of 100 km in order to reach the surface of the moon. It had no landing engine and therefore hit the moon hard. The probe carried a mass spectrometer , a video camera and a radar altimeter as its payload . The exterior of the impact probe was painted on the sides with the Indian national colors.
See also: List of man-made objects on the moon
Instruments
The spacecraft's scientific payload has a mass of 55 kilograms and includes five Indian, one Bulgarian and NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) instruments.
- TMC (India)
- The T errain M apping C amera is a stereo camera that has a resolution of 5 meters and was able to capture a 20 km wide strip in the panchromatic 500 to 850 nm band. It was used to create a high-resolution 3D map of the moon.
- HySI (India)
- The Hy by S pectral I lean served for mineralogical mapping in the 400-to-950-nm-band m at a spectral resolution of 15 nm and spatial resolution of 80 s. The instrument was able to capture a 20 km wide strip in 64 different spectral bands.
- LLRI (India)
- The L UNAR L aser R was concerned I instrument could using a 10 mJ Nd: YAG laser, the accurate flying height of the probe above the moon's surface, and thus a topographical map create the moon. LLRI added the data from the TMC camera. The vertical resolution of the instrument is approx. 5 m. The laser works with a pulse frequency of 10 Hz and a pulse duration of 5 ns.
- HEX (India / ESA)
- The H igh E nergy X -ray detector detected x-ray radiation with energies in the range of 20 to 250 keV and investigated the occurrence of heavy elements, such as 210 Pb (46.5 keV in-band), 222 Rn , uranium and thorium on the moon . The spatial resolution of the instrument was 40 km in low energy ranges (<60 keV). HEX was built by India with hardware support from ESA.
- CIXS (ESA - UK)
- The C handrayaan-1 I maging X -Ray S was pectrometer for X-ray radiation with energies from 0.5 to 10 keV, with which the occurrence of light elements such as magnesium , aluminum , silicon , calcium , titanium and iron was examined on the moon. The instrument also contains a Solar X-ray Monitor (SXM) with which the X-ray radiation of the sun was measured in the range of 2 to 10 keV in order to calibrate CIXS and to minimize the influence of solar radiation on the measurement results. CIXS was built by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and is a copy of the D-CIXS / SXM instrument on the SMART-1 spacecraft .
- SARA (ESA - Sweden / Switzerland)
- The S ub keV A tom R eflecting A nalyser is intended to examine the composition of the particles ejected from the moon's surface by the solar wind. In addition, the magnetic field is to be examined. The instrument was built by the Swedish Institute for Space Physics in collaboration with the Physics Institute of the University of Bern .
- SIR-2 (ESA - Germany)
The spectrometer, which works in the near infrared with wavelengths from 900 to 2400 nm, was used to determine the mineralogical composition of the moon. The instrument was built in Germany by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and is a further development of the SIR instrument of the space probe SMART-1 .
- M3 (NASA)
The M oon M ineralogy M apper is provided by the American space agency NASA . It is an imaging spectrometer that was used for mineralogical mapping of the moon. M3 worked in the 700 to 3000 nm band (optionally in the 400 to 3000 nm band) with a spectral resolution of 10 nm and spatial resolution of 63 m in targeted mode and 125 m in global mode . The instrument can detect a 40 km wide strip in 640 different spectral bands ( hyperspectral ). The optics of the instrument are made of aluminum , the mass is less than 10 kg and the energy consumption is less than 13 watts. The instrument was developed by Brown University and the JPL .
- RADOM (Bulgaria)
- The Ra diation Do se M onitors served to measurement of high-energy particles in the lunar radius. The instrument was developed by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences .
- Mini SAR (NASA)
- In mid-2005 discussions took place about the flight of an American Synthetic Aperture Radar . The radar was developed by the US Department of Defense and the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University and was intended to search the polar regions of the moon for deposits of water ice. The US Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter probe had a similar radar, so both devices could operate in a bistatic mode, with one device acting as a transmitter and the other as a receiver. This would take a big step closer to the question of water ice on the moon. This was attempted on August 20, 2009, but failed because the Chandrayaan-1 was not aligned with the moon at the time of measurement. Another attempt could not be made because of the loss of the Chandrayaan-1.
Course of the mission
The spacecraft was launched on October 22, 2008 at 00:52 UTC with a modified Indian PSLV launcher from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the southeast coast of India. The launcher deployed Chandrayaan-1 in 240 × 36,000 km geotransfer orbit . After a 5.5-day transfer to the moon, the probe entered an initially 1000 km high, almost circular orbit around the moon. The height of the orbit was then lowered to 200 km for testing purposes of the probe. Finally, on November 12, 2008, Chandrayaan-1 occupied an approximately 100 km high, circularly polar work orbit. In it, she goes around the moon in about two hours.
On November 14, 2008, the birthday of the former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru († 1964), under which India's space program was initiated, the Moon Impact Probe landed on the moon. At 14:36 UTC the lander separated from the mother probe and reduced its speed with small brake rockets. At 15:01 UTC, after the controlled crash, it hit the Shackleton Crater near the South Pole of the Moon . During the crash, she measured the drop in altitude, took close-up photos of the lunar surface and analyzed the extremely thin atmosphere . The data obtained were sent to the orbiter for intermediate storage and are intended to help prepare for a later moon landing.
ISTRAC antenna network
In preparation for this mission, the Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) of ISRO was reinforced with additional deep space antennas and thus forms the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN). In Byalalu , near Bangalore , there is a 32-meter, an 18-meter and an 11-meter parabolic antenna. The network operations control and the mission control center are also located there. The network has S and X band transmitters and receivers. It corresponds to the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems and can therefore work together with other international tracking and deep space networks. The Indian space agency ISRO had sole control from the start to the end of the mission and was able to carry out all tasks itself.
successor
The successor probe Chandrayaan-2 launched on July 22, 2019 at 11:13 a.m. CEST . It consists of a lunar orbiter, a lander and a rover .
See also
- Chandrayaan program , the Indian lunar space program
- Chronology of the moon missions
- List of man-made objects on the moon
- List of space probes
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ India loses contact with lunar probe (Focus Online)
- ^ New NASA Radar Technique Finds Lost Lunar Spacecraft, JET Propulsion Lab communication, March 9, 2017
- ↑ ISRO: Spacecraft description ( Memento from October 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Gunter's Space Page: Chandrayaan 1
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Lunar and Planetary Science 2006: Chandrayaan-1: Indian mission to Moon (PDF; 70 kB)
- ^ A b ISRO: Indian Tricolor Placed on the Moon on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's Birthday ( memento from July 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), November 14, 2008
- ↑ NASA: Moon Mineralogy Mapper Homepage ( Memento from June 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ^ Leonard David: India Moon Probe May Dead Water-Scouting Radar. In: Space.com. March 14, 2005, accessed September 25, 2012 .
- ^ Nancy Atkinson: Anticipated Joint Experiment with Chandrayaan-1 and LRO Failed. In: Universe Today. September 10, 2009, accessed September 25, 2012 .