ISRO news and views

[RPK]

domain-b.com : 'Major discovery' from Chandrayaan mission set to be announced

Mumbai: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are set to make a major announcement in the coming days related to as discovery made by one of the payloads onboard the immensely successful Chandrayaan-1 mission.

The announcement is expected at a media interaction scheduled for Thursday at NASA headquarters in Washington DC. The interaction will also feature Carle Pieters from Brown University, who was the principal investigator for NASA's Moon Minerology Mapper (M3) payload onboard the Chandrayaan.

Brown University have declined to comment about the nature of the announcement, merely saying that it would ''...be a major announcement of a major discovery...'' and would be ''...something great for Chandrayaan. It will mark a major leap for India's space programme."

The Thursday interaction has not been denied by ISRO officials.

It is being surmised that the announcement may be related to the discovery of water on the lunar surface. This was one of the main missions of the prematurely aborted Chandrayaan mission.

Earlier missions to the moon have indicated the likelihood of water existing in the form of ice trapped 18 inches beneath the surface, around the Polar Regions of the moon

India is already preparing for a follow-on Chandrayaaan-2 mission with Russia, which will involve the landing of a rover on the lunar surface to pick up soil samples and relay data regarding its chemical composition back to earth via the Indian lunar orbiter.

 

[indian_blues]

Congrats ISRO, looking forward to GSLV with our own cryogenic engine.

 

[RPK]

First Turkish-Made Satellite Launched From India

The first satellite manufactured in Turkey was launched from a base in India on Wednesday.
"ITUpSAT1", the first Turkish-made satellite developed by scholars at Istanbul Technical University's Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was sent to space inside a PSLV C-14 rocket by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) early on Wednesday.
The cube-shaped satellite, which will orbit the earth at an altitude of 720 km, has the capacity to take continental photos.

 

[venkat]

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/India_launches_Switzerland_s_first_satellite.html?siteSect=105&sid=11253287&rss=true&ty=st&ref=ti_spa
pls see the link for swisscube sat, which is one among the 6 cubesats launched by PSLV c-14.

 

[Pintu]

http://www.ptinews.com/news/295981_President--PM-congratulate-ISRO-team-for-Oceansat-2

President, PM congratulate ISRO team for Oceansat-2

STAFF WRITER 13:51 HRS IST

New Delhi, Sept 23 (PTI) President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today congratulated the ISRO team for successful launch of Oceansat-2 satellite, saying this would herald a new beginning in understanding of the oceans.

In a message, the President said that it was a proud moment for the whole country as the scientists successfully launched the satellites.

The Prime Minister said he was delighted to learn that the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C14 has successfully launched India's Oceansat-2 satellite and six nano satellites from European Universities and agencies.

"PSLV has once again demonstrated its versatility and reliability through this 15th successful launch in a row," Singh said, adding Oceansat-2 satellite will "herald a new beginning in our understanding of the oceans".

Congratulating the entire ISRO team responsible for this achievement, the Prime Minister wished ISRO continued success in future missions.

 

[Pintu]

http://www.ptinews.com/news/295934_Launch-of-Oceansat-2-a-fantastic-achievement--Nair

Launch of Oceansat-2 a fantastic achievement: Nair

STAFF WRITER 13:24 HRS IST

Sriharikota, Sep 23 (PTI) ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair today termed as a "fantastic achievement" the launch of Oceansat-2 and six other nano satellites.

"This is a fantastic achievement. Once again we have proved that we can do the job precisely," he said minutes after ISRO's warhorse rocket PSLV C-15 put in orbit the seven satellites within a span of 20 minutes.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed his "deepest appreciation" of the space scientists on the successful conduct of the mission, Nair announced.

"Whenever we face difficulties, ISRO has always emerged stronger," George Koshy, senior space scientist incharge of launch vehicles, said.

ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) Director S K Shivakumar said that a command centre in Mauritius had picked up the signal from Oceansat-2 soon after it separated from the launch vehicle.

 

[Pintu]

Congratulation ISRO and our scientists who are really making their country proud.

Regards

 

[Pintu]

ISRO chief lukewarm to water on moon reports

ISRO chief lukewarm to water on moon reports
Sriharikota, Sep 23, DH News Service:

Hardly four weeks after Chandrayaan-I’s, India’s first moon mission, life was cut short, a morale boosting confirmation that its Moon Mineralogy Mapper (MMM) showed presence of “lots of water” in the Moon’s polar zones, still remains elusive for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief.


“I cannot confirm (water presence in the moon) at this moment; may be by the end of the week, whatever we have found we will let you know,” ISRO Chairman Dr G Madhavan Nair said at a press conference here after PSLV-C14 successfully launched the remote sensing satellite Oceansat-2 on Wednesday.
Dr Nair said: “Right now we are looking at the planet Earth and the oceans; not the moon.” He did commend though on the efficacy of the MMM on board Chandrayaan-I, which it may be recalled had lost radio contact with ISRO’s headquarters in Bangalore on August 29.

The MMM had done a “fantastic job and it had given 97 per cent coverage of the lunar surface,” Dr Nair said but declined to confirm the reports about NASA scientists optimism about a water-find on the moon post-Chandrayaan-I.
Asked how the ISRO had underestimated the radiation levels in the lunar environment which baked the star censors of the spacecraft sent to the moon, Dr Nair disagreed with this perception. The lessons learnt from the Chandrayaan-I mission were, however, inapplicable to the launch vehicle technology that India had mastered, he emphasised. Asserting that the Chandrayaan-I spacecraft had performed as designed, the ISRO chief said, “it was a 100 per cent success as far as the moon mission’s objective is concerned.” Some anomalies such as high radiation levels were not unusual, while various “hostile factors” in the space also played a part, he noted.

Besides the radiation levels in the space itself, at times “some charged particles that penetrate the (spacecraft’s) shield,” could do the damage, Dr Nair reasoned. In the lunar environment, the radiation levels were much higher, he said adding the “power monitor” in the spacecraft got affected. In the next moon mission, “these inputs will be kept in mind,” he added.
To a related query, Dr Nair said: “Chandrayaan-I was now almost a dead object. It was going around the moon and we cannot do anything about it. It would go on in that fashion for about 1,000 days and at the end of which it will crash on the moon’s surface”.

Disclosing that the “preliminary design” for ISRO’s second moon mission, which will include an orbiter and a “lander” that would do a soft landing on the lunar surface had been completed, Dr Nair said they planned to launch Chandrayaan-II by the end of 2012 or early 2013.
Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre’s Director K Radhakrishnan, disclosed that the ISRO planned the launch of its next generation launch vehicle, the “Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)”, from Sriharikota in December this year. The first and second stage of the GSLV-D3 have been integrated, while the third indigenous cryogenic stage was under test, he said adding GSLV-D3 would put into orbit a communication satellite GSAT-4.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

India’s lunar mission finds evidence of water on the Moon - Times Online

India’s lunar mission finds evidence of water on the Moon


Dreams of establishing a manned Moon base could become reality within two decades after India’s first lunar mission found evidence of large quantities of water on its surface.

Data from Chandrayaan-1 also suggests that water is still being formed on the Moon. Scientists said the breakthrough — to be announced by Nasa at a press conference today — would change the face of lunar exploration.

The discovery is a significant boost for India in its space race against China. Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, the mission’s project director at the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore, said: “It’s very satisfying.”

The search for water was one of the mission’s main objectives, but it was a surprise nonetheless, scientists said.The unmanned craft was equipped with Nasa’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper, designed specifically to search for water by picking up the electromagnetic radiation emitted by minerals. The M3 also made the unexpected discovery that water may still be forming on the surface of the Moon, according to scientists familiar with the mission.

“It’s very satisfying,” said Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, the project director of Chandrayaan-1 at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bangalore. “This was one of the main objectives of Chandrayaan-1, to find evidence of water on the Moon,” he told The Times.

Dr Annadurai would not provide any further details before a news conference at Nasa today from Dr Carle Pieters, a planetary geologist of Brown University who oversaw the M3.

Dr Pieters has not spoken about her results so far and was not available for comment last night, according to colleagues at Brown University. But her results are expected to cause a sensation, and to set the agenda for lunar exploration in the next decade.

They will also provide a significant boost for India as it tries to catch up with China in what many see as a 21st-century space race. “This will create a considerable stir. It was wholly unexpected,” said one scientist also involved in Chandrayaan-1. “People thought that Chandrayaan was just lagging behind the rest but the science that’s coming out, it’s going to be agenda-setting.”

Scientists have long hoped that astronauts could be based on the Moon and use water found there to drink, extract oxygen to breathe and use hydrogen as fuel.

Several studies havesuggested that there could be ice in the craters around the Moon’s poles, but scientists have been unable to confirm the suspicions.

The M3, an imaging spectrometer, was designed to search for water by detecting the electromagnetic radiation given off by different minerals on and just below the surface of the Moon. Unlike previous lunar spectrometers, it was sensitive enough to detect the presence of small amounts of water.

M3 was one of two Nasa instruments among 11 pieces of equipment from around the world on Chandrayaan-1, which was launched into orbit around the Moon in October last year. ISRO lost control of Chandrayaan-1 last month, and aborted the mission ahead of schedule, but not before M3 and the other instruments had beamed data back to Earth.

Another lunar scientist familiar with the findings said: “This is the most exciting breakthrough in at least a decade. And it will probably change the face of lunar exploration for the next decade.”

Scientists are eagerly awaiting the results of two American unmanned lunar missions, which were both launched in June, that could also prove the existence of water on the Moon.

Early results from Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recorded temperatures as low as -238C (minus 396.4F) in polar craters on the Moon, according to the journal Nature. That makes them the coldest recorded spots in the solar system, even colder than the surface of Pluto, and could mean that ice has been trapped for billions of years, the journal said. The LRO has also detected an abundance of hydrogen, thought to be a key indicator of ice, at the poles.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Missions find evidence of water on the moon | Science | Reuters

Missions find evidence of water on the moon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three separate missions examining the moon have found clear evidence of water there, apparently concentrated at the poles and possibly formed by the solar wind.

The reports, to be published in the journal Science on Friday, show the water may be actively moving around, forming and reforming as particles mixed up in the dust on the surface of the moon.

Carle Pieters of Brown University in Rhode Island and colleagues reviewed data from India's Chandrayaan-1 mission -- India's first mission to the moon -- and found spectrographic evidence of water. The water seems thicker closer to the poles, they reported.

"When we say 'water on the moon,' we are not talking about lakes, oceans or even puddles. Water on the moon means molecules of water and hydroxyl (hydrogen and oxygen) that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in the top millimeters of the moon's surface," Pieters said in a statement.

Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland and colleagues used infrared mapping from the Deep Impact spacecraft to show water all over the moon, while Roger Clark of the U.S. Geological Survey and colleagues used a spectrometer -- which breaks down light waves to analyze elements and chemicals reflecting them -- from the Cassini spacecraft to identify water.

"These reports of lunar surface water coincide with intense interest in water at the poles of the Moon," Paul Lucey of the University of Hawaii, who was not involved in the research, wrote in a commentary.

"There may be much 'wetter' regions to be discovered far from the sites that have been sampled to date," Lucey added.

"It is also possible that rare water-bearing minerals previously observed in lunar samples, but argued to be terrestrial contamination, might be indigenous. Perhaps the most valuable result of these new observations is that they prompt a critical reexamination of the notion that the Moon is dry. It is not."

Next month, NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite or LCROSS mission will try to detect water by deliberately crashing a large spacecraft onto the moon.

 

[nitesh]

The Associated Press: It's not lunacy, probes find water in moon dirt

WASHINGTON — The moon isn't the dry dull place it seems. Traces of water lurk in the dirt unseen.

Three different space probes found the chemical signature of water all over the moon's surface, surprising the scientists who at first doubted the unexpected measurement until it was confirmed independently and repeatedly.

It's not enough moisture to foster homegrown life on the moon. But if processed in mass quantities, it might provide resources — drinking water and rocket fuel — for future moon-dwellers, scientists say. The water comes and goes during the lunar day.

It's not a lot of water. If you took a two-liter soda bottle of lunar dirt, there would probably be a medicine dropperful of water in it, said University of Maryland astronomer Jessica Sunshine, one of the scientists who discovered the water. Another way to think of it is if you want a drink of water, it would take a baseball diamond's worth of dirt, said team leader Carle Pieters of Brown University.

"It's sort of just sticking on the surface," Sunshine said. "We always think of the moon as dead and this is sort of a dynamic process that's going on."

The discovery, with three studies bring published in the journal Science on Thursday and a NASA briefing, could refocus interest in the moon. The appeal of the moon waned after astronauts visited 40 years ago and called it "magnificent desolation."

The announcement comes two weeks before a NASA probe purposely smashes near the moon's south pole to see if it can kick up buried ice. Over the last decade, astronomers have found some signs of underground ice on the moon's poles. But this latest discovery is quite different. It finds unexpected and pervasive water clinging to the surface of soil, not absorbed into it.

"It is drier than any desert we have here," Sunshine said.

The water was spotted by spacecraft that either circled the moon or flew by. All three ships used the same type of instrument that looked at the absorption of a specific wavelength of light that is the chemical signature of only two molecules: water and hydroxyl. Hydroxyl is one atom of hydrogen with one atom of oxygen, instead of two hydrogen atoms in water.

Because of the timing during the daylight when some of that wavelength disappears and some doesn't, it shows that both hydroxyl and water are present, Sunshine said.

This light wavelength was first discovered by an instrument on the Indian lunar satellite Chandrayaan-1, which stopped operating last month. Scientists initially figured something was wrong with the instrument because everyone knew the moon did not have a drop of water on the surface, Pieters said.

"We argued literally for months amongst ourselves to find out where the problem was," Pieters said. Sunshine, who was on the team, had a similar instrument on NASA's Deep Impact probe, headed for a comet but swinging by the moon in June. So Deep Impact looked for the water-hydroxyl signature — and found it.

Scientists also looked back at the records of NASA's Cassini probe, which is circling Saturn. It has the same type instrument and whizzed by the moon ten years ago. Sure enough, it had found the same thing.

The chance that three different instruments malfunctioned in the same way on three different spaceships is almost zilch, so this confirms that it's water and hydroxyl, Pieters said.

"There's just no question that it's there," Pieters said. "It's unequivocal."

Scientists testing lunar samples returned to Earth by astronauts did find traces of water, but they had figured it was contamination from moisture in Earth air, Pieters said.

Three scientists who were not part of the team of discoverers said the conclusion makes sense, with Arizona State University's Ron Greeley using the same word as Pieters: unequivocal.

Lunar and Planetary Institute senior scientist Paul Spudis called it exciting and said it raises the logical question: Where did that water come from?

Pieters figures there are three possibilities: It came from comets or asteroids that crashed into the moon, those crashes freed up trapped water from below the surface, or the solar wind carries hydrogen atoms that binds with oxygen in the dirt. That final possibility is the one that Sunshine and Pieters both prefer.

If it is the solar wind, that also means that other places without atmosphere in our solar system, such as Mercury or asteroids, can also have bits of water, Sunshine said.

 

[NSG_Blackcats]

ISRO has challenges ahead, says official​

SRIHARIKOTA: Although the PSLV-C14 mission on Wednesday was a success, there are challenges ahead for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), according to K. Radhaakrishnan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. These include launching a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D3) with an indigenous cryogenic stage from Sriharikota in December 2009 and the PSLV-C15 ahead of December, he said. The GSLV-D3 launch would be “a landmark in indigenous technology,” Dr. Radhaakrishnan said. It would put a communication satellite called GSAT-4 in orbit. The first stage had moved to Sriharikota. Its indigenous cryogenic stage would undergo tests at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu. Then it would be moved to Sriharikota and integrated with the other stages. In the case of the PSLV-C15, it would put Cartosat-2B in orbit.

Link

 

[vijaytripoli]

Two more launches this year with one PSLV-C15 and one GSLV-D3. The PSLV will carry high resolution imagery satellite CARTOSAT-2B and SRE-2 while GSLV will carry GSAT-4 advanced communication satellite with Ka band antenna and satellite navigation payloads as well as TAUVEX UV telescope designed jointly by India and Israel.

The Hindu : News / National : Challenges ahead for ISRO

chau

 

[vijaytripoli]

Oceansat-2 to beam first images today

BY : THE HINDU

The initial four images from Oceansat-2 will be received around 12.30 p.m. on Thursday by the National Remote Sensing Agency’s (NRSA) earth station at Shadnagar, about 55 km from here.

The station, equipped with four terminals, would get four “large images” every day, according to sources in NRSA. The data on weather and ocean conditions would be processed and provided to various user agencies. Scientists at the station will conduct ‘data handling testing’ before the cameras on board the satellite are switched on. The received images would be processed by carrying out geometry and radiometry corrections.

Sources at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) here, which houses the national Tsunami Warning Centre, said Oceansat-2 has two sensors that would provide details of ocean colour and wind. The data on ocean colour would be utilised for issuing potential fishing zone advisories, while wind conditions would be useful in issuing ocean state forecasts for the entire Indian Ocean.

With the launch of Oceansat-2, the INCOIS would be in a position to provide processed information to the Indian Navy, the Coast Guard, the oil and shipping industry as also fishermen within an hour of receiving data. At present, the INCOIS receives data from U.S. satellites and forecast time is delayed by several hours.

The sources said the INCOIS would start giving Oceansat-2 data after a week as certain tests needed to be carried out. “Presently, we are receiving colour and wind data from the foreign satellites. But, the timelines would be greatly reduced with Oceansat-2,” the sources added.

Oceansat-2 to beam first images today IDRW.ORG

 

[RPK]

Water on moon can`t be confirmed: ISRO chief

Chennai: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G. Madhavan Nair has said he can't confirm the presence of water on the moon.

"Mineralogy matter has given 97 percent of the moon surface coverage. I can't confirm the presence of water now. Before the end of this week, we will let you know," Nair told reporters Wednesday at ISRO's satellite launch centre in Sriharikota -- about 70 km from here -- after the launch of India's latest satellite Oceansat-2.

The American space agency NASA is expected to announce Thursday major findings of its moon mineralogy probe that went on board India's Chandrayaan-1.


Though the announcement is still under wraps, it is speculated it will be about the presence of water or ice on the moon.

Nair also said: "Chandrayaan is a 100 percent success as far as ISRO is concerned. ISRO is studying the data sent by the satellite and is now focussing on Chandrayaan-2 which will be launched sometime in 2012 or 2013."

 

[vijaytripoli]

INTHE PRIVATE NEWS CHANNELS THEY ARE REPORTING THAT NASA will have press conference today REGARDING CHANDERYAN1 .
ANY BODY CAN CONFIRM THIS?
CHAU

 

[Vikramaditya]

INTHE PRIVATE NEWS CHANNELS THEY ARE REPORTING THAT NASA will have press conference today REGARDING CHANDERYAN1 .
ANY BODY CAN CONFIRM THIS?
CHAU

Yes they will give the report regarding their study on the info available from chandrayaan 1..

watch any indian news channel at 11:30 PM today.

Or watch times now........at 11:30pm

They have spacial show at 9:30 PM.

 

[RPK]

ISROs trusted workhorse PSLV-C14 repeatedly proved its reliability | Ub News

During Sep. 1993 - Apr. 2009 period, PSLV had fifteen launches of which fourteen were consecutively successful. Recently, PSLV had successfully launched RISAT-2 and ANUSAT spacecrafts on April 20, 2009 including which it has given fifteen consecutive successes of launching satellites. Now yesterday ISROs PSLV-C14 repeatedly proved its reliability by launching Oceansat-2 and six nano European satellites on board a rocket that blasted off from from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota at 11:51 A.m on Wednesday, September 23rd 2009.
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C14, in its 16th Mission launched 958 kg Oceansat-2 and six nano-satellites into a 720 km. intended Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO) yesterday. PSLV is a four-stage launch vehicle employing both solid and liquid propulsion stages. PSLV is the trusted workhorse launch Vehicle of ISRO.
In its 16 years period, it is considered as the sixteen consecutive successes for PSLV in launching satellites. PSLV has repeatedly proved its reliability and versatility by launching 39 spacecrafts (17 Indian and 22 for international customers) into a variety of orbits so far. The Isro’s PSLV-C14 successfully launched its 16th remote-sensing satellite

The target was to eastablish 7 sattelites in which the six nano satellites — Cubesat 1, 2, 3, 4, and Rubin 9.1 and 9.2 — carried as auxiliary payloads, along with the Oceansat-2.All the satellites were sucessfully launched within the targeted time frame of 1200 seconds.
This launch is quite identical to April 2008 launch at that time ISRO launched 10 satellites.

Oceansat-2 is India’s second largest built for the study of the oceans as well as interaction of the oceans and atmosphere to facilitate climate studies. 960 Kg ocean -2 is launched into Polar SSO of 720 Km of height by India’s work horse launch vehicle PSLV during sixteenth mission.

The auxiliary payloads are educational satellites from European Universities and are intended to test new technologies. After the separation of Oceansat-2from PSLV-C14 the four cubesats
Will be seprated, While Rubin 9.1 and 9.2 will remain permanently attached to the upper stage.
This mission is unique for PSLV as this is the first time that new AMC/ATS based avionics is being used for a typical SSPO mission. A Core Alone configuration of the vehicle with PS4 L2.5 stage is being employed to put the satellites in orbit. This is the fifth mission of PSLV in Core alone configuration.”
It is added on the ISRO Website that this time there were some major changes and that are PS4 to use L2.5 stage ,First time use of ECI frame and Quaternion based computation for SSPO mission ,Introduction of a 45° inclined deck to mount Rubin spacecrafts on EB ,CUBESATs are separated using a separation system SPL supplied along with S/C by the user.

The ISRO PSLV is capable of launching 1600 kg satellites in 620 km sun-synchronous polar orbit and 1050 kg satellite in geo-synchronous transfer orbit. In the standard configuration, it measures 44.4 m tall, with a lift off weight of 295 tonnes.

PSLV has four stages using solid and liquid propulsion systems alternately. The first stage is one of the largest solid propellant boosters in the world and carries 139 tonnes of propellant. A cluster of six strap-ons attached to the first stage motor, four of which are ignited on the ground and two are air-lit.

The reliability rate of PSLV has been superb. There had been 15 continuously successful flights of PSLV, till September 2009. With its variant configurations, PSLV has proved its multi-payload, multi-mission capability in a single launch and its geosynchronous launch capability.

 

[RPK]

fullstory

Oceansat-2 launch one of the best: Space centre Director

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept 24 (PTI) The textbook launch of Oceansat-2 and six nano European satellites in 20 minutes by homegrown rocket PSLV was one of best performances in the Indian space programme, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre K Radhakrishnan said.

"This is PSLV's 15th successful flight and it is one of the best," Radhakrishnan said, referring to the flawless launch yesterday from coastal Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh.

The Indian Space Research Organisation's PSLV-C14 put its 960 kg Ocean Monitoring Satellite(Oceansat-2)--the country's 16th remote sensing satelitte--into intended orbit of about 720 kms above the earth 1,200 seconds after it was blasted off from the space centre.

Radhakrishnan said the Oceansat would help ascertain vital datas such as velocity of waves and direction of wind, which would be beneficial to offshore industries.

Radhakrishnan, who returned here after the launch, said this was another triumph for team work.

 

[Rajan]

ISRO confirms presence of water on the Moon

Chandrayaan-1 detects presence of water on the Moon

Welcome To ISRO :: News

Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to Moon, was launched with the prime objective of finding traces of water on the lunar surface besides mapping minerals and chemicals on the Moon. Towards this, a host of sophisticated instruments were included in Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, like Moon Impact Probe (MIP) and Hyper-Spectral Imager (HySI) from ISRO as well as Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) and Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR) through NASA to collect relevant data from the lunar surface. During the mission, excellent quality of data from all these instruments has been obtained. While M3 has covered nearly 97% of the lunar surface, some of the other instruments have covered more than 90%.

A path-breaking finding has evolved recently from the detailed analysis of the data obtained from M3, which has clearly indicated the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface extending from lunar poles to about 60 deg. Latitude. Hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom, was also found in the lunar soil. The confirmation of water molecules and hydroxyl molecule in the moon's polar regions raises new questions about its origin and its effect on the mineralogy of the moon.

M3 measures the intensity of reflected sunlight from the lunar surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colours of the lunar surface into small enough bits revealing finer details of the lunar surface composition. This enabled identification of the presence of various minerals on the lunar surface that have characteristic spectral signature at specific wavelengths. Since reflection of sunlight occurs near the moon’s surface, such studies provide information on the mineral composition of the top crust of a few millimeters of the lunar surface. The Indian instrument HySI, that covers the wavelength region 0.4 to 0.9 micron, also provided additional data in this regard that helped in better understanding of moon’s mineral composition.

The findings from M3 onboard Chandrayaan-1 clearly shows a marked signature in the infrared region of 2.7 to 3.2 micron in the absorption spectrum, which provided a clear indication of the presence of hydroxyl and water molecules.

The scientific team, after detailed analysis, has come to the conclusion that there are traces of hydroxyl (OH) and water (H2O) molecules on the surface of the moon closer to the polar region. It is also concluded that they are in the form of a thin layer embedded in rocks and chemical compounds on the surface of the moon and the quantity is also extremely small of the order of about 700 ppm. These molecules could have come from the impact of comets or radiation from the sun. But most probable source could be low energy hydrogen carried by solar wind impacting on the minerals on lunar surface. This in turn forms OH or H2O molecules by deriving the oxygen from metal oxide.

Following these findings, the scientific team revisited the data from NASA’s Deep Impact Mission launched in 2005 which carried an instrument similar to M3. Deep Impact Probe observed the moon during the period June 2 and 9, 2009. This, along with some laboratory tests carried out from samples brought from Apollo missions, has confirmed that the signature is genuine and there is a thin layer of surface mineral which contains traces of hydroxyl and water molecules.

The M3 observations are further strengthened by results obtained from the analysis of archived data of lunar observation in 1999 by another NASA Mission, Cassini, on its way to Saturn. This data set also revealed clear signatures of both OH and H2O absorption features on the lunar surface.

The analysis of the huge volume of M3 data was carried out by a joint team of scientists from US and India. The lead role was taken up by Dr.Carle Pieters, Principal Investigator from Brown University, USA and Prof. J N Goswami, Principal Scientist, Chandrayaan-1 from Physical Research Laboratory of India`s Department of Space. The findings were published in Sciencexpress in its September 24, 2009 edition.

Analysis of data from other instruments on board Chandrayaan-1 is in progress.