India's Moon Exploration Program

[here2where]

Everyone knew that including ISRO who is simply trying to bring the hope.

Most of us iam sure would prefer scientific results and explanations rather than blind hopes and fantasies.
Instead of taking the country on a wild ride, proffessionalism entailed ISRO to be upfront about the lander’s fate.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

TN scientist heading Chandrayaan 3 mission known for his technical acumen

 

[maniacguy]

TN scientist heading Chandrayaan 3 mission known for his technical acumen

I don’t care about his whereabouts as long as the mission succeeds to the T. Also without delays. On the way they could upgrade to a full hd streaming setup.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Fourth Lunar Science Meet and Chandrayaan-2 Data Analysis Workshop held at ISSDC, Bengaluru

 

[Akula]

Fourth Lunar Science Meet and Chandrayaan-2 Data Analysis Workshop held at ISSDC, Bengaluru

Isro should have done proper PR or at least made a Twitter account of Chandrayaan 2 like they did with Mangalyaan.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Isro should have done proper PR or at least made a Twitter account of Chandrayaan 2 like they did with Mangalyaan.

Not needed. Chandrayaan Programme is to be a long string rather than one or two missions in a decade unlike India's Venus and Mars programmes.

Better ISRO keeps only one account like NASA to tweet everything and go more into images and infographics than boring texts. That will earn it more than enough international PR.

 

[Akula]

Not needed. Chandrayaan Programme is to be a long string rather than one or two missions in a decade unlike India's Venus and Mars programmes.

Better ISRO keeps only one account like NASA to tweet everything and go more into images and infographics than boring texts. That will earn it more than enough international PR.

Even that Mangalyaan account is dead now. Or they can verify their Isro official YT channel and post videos about their discoveries.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Even that Mangalyaan account is dead now. Or they can verify their Isro official YT channel and post videos about their discoveries.

Yeah they should. Their website is good but wondering they could expand its layout a bit (for which their budget and projects should also be diverse like NASA). A website with infographics is best PR.

Wait,
ISRO's website's layout better than NASA. Just a darker background like space is needed instead of white color. Other sites too got nice layouts.

https://www.nasa.gov/

http://en.roscosmos.ru/

http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/

https://www.esa.int/

https://www.isro.gov.in/

https://global.jaxa.jp/

 

[Karthi]

Chandrayaan 2 XSM Sensor package Flight Model

XSM Processing Electronics Package

 

[Karthi]

Mounting locations of XSM packages on Chandrayaan-2

 

[Karthi]

Stereo Navcams developed for Chandrayaan 2 Lunar Rover

Camera testing in Integrating Sphere.

 

[Karthi]

Image captured by lunar Rover

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Isro receives patent for highland soil simulant for future lunar missions

GSLV-MkIII-M1 rocket carrying Chandrayaan-2 lifts off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at Sriharikota in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh | Photo: ISRO

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has received a patent for its method of manufacturing highland lunar soil simulant. The simulant is made in bulk from similar rock samples identified and picked out from Sittampundi Anorthosite Complex, almost 67 km from Salem, in Tamil Nadu.

The procedure has satisfied all aspects such as mineralogy, bulk chemistry, grain size distribution and geo-mechanical properties. The method used for preparing the lunar simulant is cost-effective, reproducible and easy to scale up, said the patent specification filed by the Space Agency.

The simulant is quite similar to the regolith (loose unconsolidated rock and dust that sits atop a layer of bedrock according to Encyclopaedia Britannica) of lunar highland region. It can be used to control the mobility of the rover for scientific exploration and for the study of geo-technical or mechanical properties of lunar soil.

The simulant could also be used for fundamental theoretical and experimental research for constructing civil engineering structures on the surface of the Moon, and to make headway in lunar locomotive engineering.

There are bright and dark areas on the Moon's surface. The dark areas are called Maria or mare, which are mostly flat, while the highlands are heavily cratered and mountainous. Isro's patent application claims that most of the countries produced simulants representing lunar mare region, while the highland crust occupies 83 per cent of the lunar surface. Yet, only a limited number of simulants represent the regolith of this region.

It is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to produce simulants in large numbers. Hence, there is a need for low-priced simulants for diverse lunar applications in order to minimise mission risk. The inventors have ingeniously arrived at a method to make a lunar simulant that has a chemical and mineralogical composition, and mechanical and geotechnical properties that are similar to those of lunar soil.

"Most future missions propose for soft landing on the lunar highland region. Hence there is an urgent need for bulk quantity of lunar soil simulants that represent the highland lunar crust," it said in the patent specification filed in 2014. Isro added that its simulant is exclusively manufactured to represent lunar highland region and should also be useable in diverse lunar applications to provide lowest possible risk.

It may be recalled that for Chandrayaan-2, India's first moon landing experiment, Isro had developed lander and rover indegenously after the Russian promise to offer the technology did not come up. These were tested in a simulated atmosphere with support of surface created by rocks transported from Salem. These rocks were similar in compositiom to the Moon's surface. Reports said the rocks were crushed to the required size and moved to Bengaluru where the facility was created. The mission, with an orbiter, a rover and a probe, successfully placed the orbiter which will have an extended lifespan of seven years, while the lander crashed on the Moon's south pole in September 2019.

Several countries have been developing and producing lunar simulants, including the US, Japan and China, and several attempts has been made in the past to reproduce the lunar environment for research purpose. There has been renewed interest by many of these countries in probing Earth's only natural satellite for its mineral content in the recent past.

Reports quoting Isro in 2019 said the space agency has plans to explore a joint satellite mission in Moon's polar region in collaboration with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa).

According to reports, Isro has announced a Chandrayaan-3 mission similar in configuration to the second Moon mission. It said that Chandrayaan-2 was a highly complex mission, as it brought together an Orbiter, Lander and Rover to explore the Moon's south pole. This mission was unique in that it aimed at studying not just one area of the Moon but all areas combining the exosphere, the surface as well as the sub-surface of the satellite in a single mission.

"The Moon is the closest cosmic body at which space discovery can be attempted and documented. It is also a promising test bed to demonstrate technologies required for deep-space missions, said Isro in its Chandrayaan-2 mission page.

Chandrayaan-2

was aimed for enhancing our understanding of the Moon, stimulate the advancement of technology, promote global alliances and inspire a future generation of explorers and scientists,".

 

[Varun2002]

First anniversary of Chandrayaan-2 launch - ISRO

Chandrayaan-2 marked one year of completion of launch by GSLV MkIII –M1 today. The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was inserted into lunar orbit on August 20, 2019. All eight payloads on Chandrayaan-2 are performing well. The global mapping of lunar surface and polar coverage are being carried out as...

www.isro.gov.in

Chandrayaan-2 marked one year of completion of launch by GSLV MkIII –M1 today. The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was inserted into lunar orbit on August 20, 2019. All eight payloads on Chandrayaan-2 are performing well. The global mapping of lunar surface an ...

 

[Varun2002]

^ And this orbiter is projected to last 7 years, instead of the original one year. That itself is a major achievement.

Can anyone point to a link that details all the technologies that were proven in the ill-fated Vikram Lander? There was mention of the success of variable propulsion; and even lay people know that the 4 or 5 800N motors, used for the first time, worked well. What else was proven before the crash?

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Chandrayaan-2 imaged Sarabhai crater on the Moon

On 30th July 2020, Terrain Mapping Camera – 2 (TMC-2) onboard ISRO’s Chandrayaan – 2 captured the Sarabhai Crater on Mare Serenitatis in the north east quadrant of the Moon. Mare Serenitatis, which host the Sarabhai crater is one of the lunar mare region on the Moon, with vast lava plains creating a near flat surface. To the east and ~250-300 km of Sarabhai crater is the landing site of Apollo 17 and Luna 21 missions.

Sarabhai crater is named after an Indian astrophysicist Dr. Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai, regarded as the Father of Indian Space program, and the Founder of Physical Research Laboratory and a distinguished cosmic-ray and space scientist. The birth centenary of Dr. Sarabhai is being celebrated by ISRO.

The Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and 3D view of the crater generated using the Fore, Nadir and Aft images from TMC-2 reveals average depth of the crater as ~1.7 km from the raised crater rim and average slope of the crater walls is in the range 25-30°. This Sarabhai crater outer region is dominated by numerous smaller craters of varying diameter distributed over the flat Mare plains, and is devoid of any large crater (diameter >10 km) in its vicinity (~100 km around). The raised rim, the gradient inner walls and the small hummocky floor makes the Sarabhai crater an excellent example to understand the impact processes on the lava filled region of the Moon.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Chandrayaan-3 locked for March 2021. Would have been launched in November 2020 instead if CCP virus wouldn't have messed it up.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Tender for construction of lunar surface simulation for testing lander of Chandrayaan-3.

URSC/C&MG/C/TN/3/2020-21 dated : 11.08.2020. - ISRO

www.isro.gov.in

 

[Varun2002]

Indx TechStyle, I'm now hearing murmurs/unconfirmed reports/unofficial statements, that there will be only one ( at most two) launches from SHAR between now, and the end of the year. And these two missions won't even be the ones that are most eagerly awaited like GISAT-1 and SSLV-D1. Please say it isn't so.

 

[Indx TechStyle]

Indx TechStyle, I'm now hearing murmurs/unconfirmed reports/unofficial statements, that there will be only one ( at most two) launches from SHAR between now, and the end of the year. And these two missions won't even be the ones that are most eagerly awaited like GISAT-1 and SSLV-D1. Please say it isn't so.

1. Even that one mission this year isn't very likely if COVID continues there.
2. SSLV is probably on hold now. If Skyroot Aerospace' Vikram I launcher is successful, it will kill SSLV launcher anyway.
3. GISAT-I yet on hold.

Missions essentially being considered are; Oceansat-3, RISAT-1A & B, IDRSS-1 & 2, GSAT-20, unmanned Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan-3.