Chandrayaan

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Chandrayaan I (Present Configuration)

Chandrayaan I (Sanskrit चंद्रयान-1) which literally means "Moon Craft" is an unmanned lunar mission by the Indian Space Research Organization The mission includes a lunar orbiter as well as an impactor. The spacecraft will be launched by a modified version of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

The remote sensing satellite will weigh 1304 kg (590 kg initial orbit mass and 504 kg dry mass) and carries high resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infrared, soft and hard X-ray frequencies. During two years, it is intended to survey the lunar surface to produce a complete map of its chemical characteristics and 3-dimensional topography. The polar regions are of special interest, as they might contain water ice.^[1]

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has identified Mylswamy Annadurai as Project Chief and in a press statement in September 2004 ISRO announced that planning has now made enough progress that they are confident that the mission will take place in Feburary 2008.

They estimate the cost to be only INR 3.8 billion (US$ 83 million).

The mission includes six ISRO payloads and six payloads from other international space agencies such as NASA and ESA, and Bulgaria .

1 Mission Objectives
2 Specific Areas of Study
3 Payloads
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Mission Objectives

Carry out high resolution mapping of topographic features in 3D, distribution of various minerals and elemental chemical species including radioactive nuclides covering the entire lunar surface using a set of remote sensing payloads. The new set of data would help in unraveling mysteries about the origin and evolution of solar system in general and that of the moon in particular.
Realize the mission goal of harnessing the science payloads, lunar craft and the launch vehicle with suitable ground support system including DSN station, integration and testing, launching and achieving lunar orbit of ~100 km, in-orbit operation of experiments, communication/telecommand, telemetry data reception, quick look data and archival for scientific utilization by identified group of scientists.

[edit] Specific Areas of Study

High resolution mineralogical and chemical imaging of permanently shadowed north and south polar regions
Search for surface or sub-surface water-ice on the moon, specially at lunar pole
Identification of chemical end members of lunar high land rocks
Chemical stratigraphy of lunar crust by remote sensing of central upland of large lunar craters, South Pole Aitken Region (SPAR) etc., where interior material may be expected
To map the height variation of the lunar surface features along the satellite track
Observation of X-ray spectrum greater than 10 keV and stereographic coverage of most of the moon's surface with 5 m resolution, to provide new insights in understanding the moon's origin and evolution

[edit] Payloads

The scientific payload has a total mass of 90 kg and contains six Indian instruments and six foreign Instruments.

The Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) has 5 meter resolution and a 40 km swath in the panchromatic band and will be used to produce a high-resolution map of the Moon.^[2]

The Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI) will perform mineralogical mapping in the 400-900 nm band with a spectral resolution of 15 nm and a spatial resolution of 80 m.

The Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) will determine the surface topography.

A fourth instrument, an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, will have three components: a Low Energy X-ray spectrometer (LEX) covering 0.5 - 10 keV with a ground resolution of 10 km, a High Energy X-ray/gamma ray spectrometer (HEX) for 10 - 200 keV measurements with ground resolution of about 20 km, and a Solar X-ray Monitor (SXM) to detect solar flux in the 2–10 keV range. LEX will be used to map the abundance of Si, Al, Mg, Ca, Fe, and Ti at the surface, the HEX will measure U, Th, ²¹⁰Pb, ²²²Rn degassing, and other radioactive elements, and the SXM will monitor the solar flux to normalize the results of LEX and HEX.

Moon Impact probe(MIP) developed by ISRO is in turn a small satellite that will be carried by Chandrayaan-1 and will be ejected once it reaches 100 km orbit around moon, to impact on the moon. MIP carries three more instruments namely, a high resolution mass spectrometer, an S-Band altimeter and a video camera.

Among foreign payloads, The Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SARA) from ESA will map composition using low energy neutral atoms sputtered from the surface. ^[3]

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) from Brown University and JPL (funded by NASA) is an imaging spectrometer designed to map the surface mineral composition.

A near infrared spectrometer (SIR-2) from ESA, built at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, will also map the mineral composition using an infrared grating spectrometer. The instrument will be similar to that of the Smart-1 SIR.

S-band miniSAR from the APL at the Johns Hopkins University (funded by NASA) is the active SAR system to map lunar polar ice. The instrument will transmit right polarized radiation with a frequency of 2.5 GHz and will monitor the scattered left and right polarized radiation. The Fresnel reflectivity and the cicular polarization ratio (CPR) are the key parameters deduced from this measurments. Ice shows the Coherent Backscatter Opposition Effect which results in an enhancement of refelections and CPR. With the data the water content of the moon polar region can estimated.^[4]

Radiation Dose Monitor from Bulgaria is to map the radiation environment around the moon.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Bhandari N. (2005). "Title: Chandrayaan-1: Science goals". Journal of Earth System Science 114: 699.
^ A. S. Kiran Kumar, A. Roy Chowdhury (2005). "Terrain mapping camera for Chandrayaan-1". J. Earth Syst. Sci. 114 (6): 717–720.
^ Bhardwaj, A., S. Barabash, Y. Futaana, Y. Kazama, K. Asamura, D. McCann, R. Sridharan, M. Holmström, P. Wurz, R. Lundin (2005). "Low energy neutral atom imaging on the Moon with the SARA instrument aboard Chandrayaan-1 Mission". J. Earth System Sci 114 (6): 749-760.
^ P. D. Spudis, B. Bussey, C. Lichtenberg, B. Marinelli, S. Nozette (2005). "mini-SAR: An Imaging Radar for the Chandrayaan 1 Mission to the Moon". Lunar and Planetary Science 26.