Chandrayaan II may be delayed as ISRO focuses more on Mars

Chanakya's_Chant

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Chandrayaan loses sheen as ISRO eyes Mars​

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Uncertainty stares in the face of India's sequel to Chandrayaan, the moon mission.

With the Isro focussing all its energy and resources on the Mars mission, the second edition of Chandrayaan is likely to be delayed by more than two years. This, sources told TOI, would damage the country's pursuit to explore lunar minerals seen as panacea of all future energy needs.

Though Russia had backed of the Chandrayaan-II, Isro team had made steady progress including successful testing of an indigenous rover. The rover, with experimental payloads, was supposed to drill and test lunar surface for presence of water and helium-3.

But change of priorities has forced the scientists to slow down preparations for Chandrayaan-II. Its project leader has been shifted to head the Mars mission. Even as Isro claims that sending an orbiter to Mars would help place India in a league of nations attempting deep-space exploration, many like its former chief G Madhavan Nair term it a foolish bid at fame.

"If the mission to Mars is complex and takes eight months, it takes only about five days for the moon mission. No one familiar with orbital mechanics will appreciate this much-hyped Rs 450-crore Mars mission probe, which is hollow. Even if successful, we would only be an also-ran as there is no scientific or technological challenge involved," Nair said.

The Mars mission is scheduled for launch between October 21 and November 7 on PSLV C-25 instead of the initial plan to use a GSLV.

As a result, Isro has reduced payload significantly to suit PSLV's carrying capacity. Sources said the planned orbiter will feature minimum payload of less than 20 kg. "The plan is to catapult it from a polar point where it will be deposited by the PSLV to Mars' space. The journey will take eight months," sources said.

The satellite will be in an elliptical orbit ranging from 380km to 80,000 km at the farthest. "Or it will be able to observe Mars of send data only when it is at 380 km. But I'm sceptical about the information that a 14kg payload, including Mars camera, mass methane sensor and atmosphere thermal Infrared imaging spectrometer, can send home," Nair said terming the mission as a publicity stunt.

Isro spokesperson Deviprasad Karnik said the decision to advance Mars mission is to use the launch window between October 21 and November 7. "If we miss this chance, it will be another two years before Mars reaches the closest orbital conjunction," said VSSC director S Ramakrishnan.

Source:- Times of India (TOI)

#Well Moon is more important than Mars...
 

roma

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notta problem as long as something moves ahead and preferably with better force , better determination and in a planned and ordered manner

overall and specified progress is what im looking for , never mind if it is in one area or another as long as there is substantial value added and substantial progress made
 

Abhijeet Dey

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For Chandrayaan-2 to be successful ISRO needs time to develop its GSLV rocket which can carry bigger payloads. Currently GSLV is in a testing stage (two more tests needed). On the other hand Chandrayaan-2 is a joint project between India & Russia. The latter has delayed the development of moon Rover for Chandrayaan-2.
 

Abhijeet Dey

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India's second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 stuck in limbo
Press Trust of India, August 1, 2013

India's second mission to Moon appears headed for a prolonged delay following uncertainty over availability of lander from Russia even as the 'desi' rocket to launch the space odyssey would take time to become operational.

The ambitious Chandrayaan-2 project seems to be in a limbo with both Indian and Russian sides beset with their own space technology-related issues, pushing the joint moon exploration mission, already hit by time overruns, to the back-burner.

"Chandrayaan-2 is the logical extension of the first moon mission. In this mission a soft lander will place a rover on the moon's surface which will collect physical samples, analyse and send results to earth. This is the logical extension of Chandrayaan-1 to confirm the findings of remote sensing through physical tests," according to an official of Indian Space Research Organisation.

ISRO and Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) signed an agreement on joint lunar research and exploration in November 2007, with the cooperation envisaging Chandrayaan-2, involving a lunar orbiting spacecraft and a lander/rover on the Moon's surface.

It was agreed at the time that ISRO will have the prime responsibility for the orbiter and Roskosmos for the lander/rover, with the launch on India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) around the 2011-12 time frame.

India undertook the maiden mission to Moon in 2008 and Chandrayaan-2 was positioned as the next logical step for more detailed and in situ study of the Moon.

Declining to discuss the timeframe for the mission, ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan, who is also Secretary in the Department of Space, told PTI: "We will not be able to say that (time-line) because the uncertainty remains on the lander availability."

After the failed Phobos-Grunt Russian sample return mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars, more than one-and-half years ago, Roscosmos indicated to ISRO in May 2012 a major programmatic change in the joint moon exploration.

"Russia ordered an internal review (after the failure of Phobos-Grunt) and they came forward and said they have a different programmatic plan for development and qualification of lander system which talks about an experimental mission in 2015 and another mission in 2017 with that lander module", Radhakrishnan said.

"So we found that there is a programmatic realignment required now if we are to undertake Chandrayaan-2," he said.

ISRO also has to build a GSLV (rocket) with four diameter heat-shield to accommodate the Russian lander but says it needs two successful launches of GSLV before it embarks on the Chandrayaan-2 launch.

ISRO suffered twin setback in 2010 with the failure of GSLV one with indigenous cryogenic engine and another with the imported Russian one and is attempting to flight-test GSLV with indigenous cryogenic engine for the first time since then this month.

"Uncertainty on the schedule of the lander is clear. It's there. Availability of the lander has become uncertain. So now, we are lacking in that part", Radhakrishnan said.

Currently, discussions are underway between ISRO and Roscosmos on the way forward vis-a-vis the Chandrayaan-2 mission but it appears there is no major headway in the past one year though there were several rounds of discussions and exchange of technical data between Indian and Russian sides primarily to finalise on the various interfaces and mission-related operations.
 

tramp

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Instead of trying too many projects at the same time, ISRO needs to focus on a limited number of quality programs that will have high impact value. That way focus on Mars is not indefensible.
 

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