Date:12/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/10/12/stories/2008101251090301.htm

Back Chandrayaan-1 scheduled to take off on Oct. 22

Over 1,000 scientists working to a tight schedule for the lunar mission.

R. Balaji

Sriharikota, Oct. 11

Chandrayaan-1, India's first spacecraft built to explore the moon, will blast off into space on October 22, - if weather permitsting.

According to Mr M.C. Dathan, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at Shriharikota (SHAR), about 80 km north of Chennai, said that over a 1,000 scientists are were working to a tight schedule for the lunar mission. The launch vehicle, PSLV-C11, the rocket, that will carry the Chandrayaan into space, has been assembled at SHAR and is an upgraded version of the Indian Space Research Organisations work horse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

Addressing reporters visiting the facility, he said, scientists expect the Chandrayaan to be orbiting the moon - about 3.84 lakh km away - 20 days after the launch. This would put India among the few elite few countries - including some European countries, US, China, Japan and Russia - to have launched a moon mission.

Expected data

Over the next two years, after Chandrayaan settles down in a polar orbit about 100 km from the moon, it is expected to give the scientists valuable data on the mineral resources, possible presence of Helium-3 - a clean fuel for nuclear fusion reactors - and check for water-ice on the moon's surface.

Making this study possible would be the 11 payloads - instruments - that the Chandrayaan would carry on it. Five of these are designed and constructed by the Indian space scientists and six from foreign agencies including three from European space agencies, one from Bulgaria and two from the US. The data collected by these instruments would be available to the scientists from these countries, he said.

The Indian payloads have cameras that will transmit the surface map of the moon, give spectroscopic data on mineral content, measure the height of the surface features on the moon and identify regions covered by thick water-ice deposits.

moon impact probe

At the end of two years, when the life of the spacecraft runs out, the climax would be the launch of a moon impact probe. This would be launched from the Chandrayaan to crash into the moon's surface. Effectively, the impact and reaction of the moon's surface to this `bomb' would give scientists more valuable data on the quality of the moon's surface, scientists said.

PSLV is a 44-metre tall rocket weighing over 316 tonnes at the time of lift off. Chandrayaan-1, with the payload it carries, weighs 1,380 kg, nearly half of it fuel to propel it to the moon.

When it starts orbiting the moon, it will weigh about 750 kg and still have about 130 kg of fuel. It will use nearly half this to hold it in position in the 100-km orbit around the moon for two years and the additional fuel is for a safety margin, Mr Dathan said.