India's Moon Exploration Program

Swesh

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and co-authors analyzed the remote sensing data that were collected by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument onboard India’s Chandrayaan 1 mission between 2008 and 2009. Specifically, they assessed the changes in water formation as the Moon traversed through Earth’s magnetotail, which includes the plasma sheet.

“To my surprise, the remote sensing observations showed that the water formation in Earth’s magnetotail is almost identical to the time when the Moon was outside of the Earth’s magnetotail,” said Li. “This indicates that, in the magnetotail, there may be additional formation processes or new sources of water not directly associated with the implantation of solar wind protons. In particular, radiation by high energy electrons exhibits similar effects as the solar wind protons.”

“Altogether, this finding and my previous findings of rusty lunar poles indicate that the mother Earth is strongly tied with its Moon in many unrecognized aspects,” said Li.
 

Swesh

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ISRO picked up lander in the darkness of lunar night - first time in the history of lunar exploration


Today ISRO posted the image of Chandrayaan-3 lander, Vikram, resting in the pitched darkness of lunar night. Vikram was imaged by polarimetric DF-SAR (Dual Frequency SAR) on board Chandrayaan 2. My heart beat jumped at the very sight of the image as I was fortunate to be at the right time, to lead the design and development of this payload DF-SAR. Vikram was identified in double bounce signature (Red colour) of polarimetric SAR in the high resolution mode of 2 m. resolutionn.

NASA provided S band mini SAR onboard Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. It was considered a marvel of engineering and nobody from ISRO was allowed a peep inside the closed packages. So it was but natural for ISRO to invite them for providing the SAR for Chandrayaan 2 orbiter. Nobody can refute the argument of having the continuity of data records with continuity of payload. But having built RISAT-1, I was determined to bag the payload, albeit with much better SAR configuration.

It was November 2012. I was pitching for our proposal before a daunting committee, chaired by Prof. U R Rao. Those who faced pugnacious questioning by Prof. Rao, can vouch for the tremors I was feeling in my heart, while facing him.

I pleaded for polarimetric L and S band SAR with capability of volumetric estimation of dirty ice in the depths of polar craters in comparison to single frequency SAR from NASA, which can identify only the presence or absence of water. Rao Saab was blunt. He was willing to allot 11.5 kg mass, same as NASA's miniSAR. I pleaded that we will have 4 times the NASA hardware and I pleaded for at least 4 times the mass budget. Finally, Rao saab gave his verdict with his typical dead pan visage: 15 kg, take it or leave it. I was desperate enough to agree to this atrocious number. Only 6 months before, we launched RISAT-1 with a mass of 950 kg. I knew the 15 kg mass budget was sheer impossibility. I returned with a fear that I had probably bitten more than what I can chew.

Rest is history. Our team rose to the challenge. We built dual frequency SAR antenna sharing the same aperture. The rectangular S band patch was printed inside rectangle shaped annuar L band patch. We built ISRO's first class-F GAN ( Gallium Nitride) power amplifier to reach highest possible power efficiency with very reduced mass. Our digital team built very miniaturised package, clubbing functionalities of three packages of RISAT 1. It was essentially a mad weight loss programme we imposed on ourselves. Only possessed team can embark on this crazy path. We delivered DF SAR finally with 16.5 kg mass, exceeding the atrocious mass budget by 10%. Rest is history. I learnt a valuable lesson from Prof. U R Rao : set a standard for yourselves, better than the best and put your hearts in the game to achieve what you have set for yourselves.

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Super Flanker

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I think Japan was waiting for Chandrayaan-3's landing so that the technology for Vikram lander could be validated, meaning they wanted to see how Vikram would perform on lunar soil Because in LUPEX/Chandrayaan-4 mission, the lander will be contributed by India and proving Vikram's operational abilities was a must as this technology will be used in the lander that will be used in LUPEX. Atleast this is what I can infer.
 
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Vamsi

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I think Japan was waiting for Chandrayaan-3's landing so that the technology for pragyan rover could be validated, meaning they wanted to see how Pragyan would perform on lunar soil after Vikram',s Because in LUPEX/Chandrayaan-4 mission, the rover will be contributed by India and proving Pragyan's operational abilities was a must as this technology will be used in the rover that will be used in LUPEX. Atleast this is what I can infer.
No, you are wrong, the rover will be Japanese,while lander will be Indian
 

Super Flanker

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No, you are wrong, the rover will be Japanese,while lander will be Indian
Thank you for correcting me. I edited my post, you can check it now. But it's true I think that Japanese were waiting for Vikram to touch down safely on lunar soil. Before 23rd August, the timeline for LUPEX was 2026-28 but after Chandrayaan-3 landed on 23rd August, now we see the launch date to be more earlier, it's no coincidence. I think everyone here with agree with me on this.
 

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