I was in the Chandrayaan session at LPSC this morning. (for the record, the chinese presenters for the two Chang-e 1 papers were not able to get visas in time, as were some of the indian presenters). Goswami gave a little more detail on the MIP impact location. The descent images run down roughly 14 degrees east towards the pole. My strip above approaches Malepert crater. they have a few images just south of Malapert on the edge of Howarth crater before the images become blank as they enter the permanent shadow in Howarth. Then the last five images from MIP emerge from the shadows and can be located on the outer rim of Shackleton. The impact point is apparently about 89.7 degrees south and close to the zero meridian just on the earth side of Shackleton. This is further south than Goswami said in his abstract.

Phil

http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon/2009/03/...-mapping-cycle/

Looks like we are near the completion of the first mapping cycle, images expected this week.

Yes, though this is just MiniSAR, the radar mapper, and not the cameras.

Paul Spudis gave a good talk on this instrument at LPSC and showed images which will probably be the ones released later this week. I won't steal his glory... but although nothing is certain without proper calibration, they do see some interesting things, though not necessarily where we might expect.

Carle Pieters showed great MMM data too. Very promising dataset.

Now come on ISRO! You can do it!

Anyone checked out the tweets from Chandrayaan fans lately? They have pretty much dried up do to lack of material.

Phil

Here's a comparison of that new MiniSAR image with a Lunar orbiter mosaic from the USGS nomenclature page.

Phil

Click to view attachment

http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/moon_images.htm

More images coming!

Congrats, ISRO! Finally... the wait is over!

Bump! Mini-SAR images have been published!!!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/Mini-RF/...edia/index.html

The newsletter of ISRO, Space India has a special on Chandrayaan 1. Guys here might be interested.


Link: http://www.isro.gov.in/newsletters/spacein...c2008/index.htm

Sincerely,
Pradeep

India's science magazine Current Science had a Chandrayaan special in February 2009. I missed out on this because of health problems etc. This contains the expected first results from Chandrayaan These are the expected first results from Chandrayaan 1.

These are all scientific papers (this is how ISRO generally releases information) and all are in PDFs. Most of these are about instruments and their good performances. - http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/feb252009/contents.htm

sincerely,
Pradeep

Yesterday night as Indians were having dinner, the scientists at Peenya (something like your Houston) sent Chandrayaan the magic words which raised Chandrayaan 1's orbit to 200 km. In ISRO style they sent out a pressr 12 hours later as Indians had their breakfast.

Link to pressr: http://isro.gov.in/pressrelease/May20_2009.htm

The official version is that all 11 instruments have completed their work at the 100 km orbit, so we're going to step back and take a wider look at the Moon and also take another look at those gravitational anomalies.

The unofficial version: What?! 200 kms? WHEN did they plan that? What happened? *conspiracy theory look*.

Most of the journalists (yes, we're still stuck there) who couered this mission had reported this as a simple no risk (remember that 17 day journey to the Moon?) 100 km 2 year mission and ISRO jumps orbits? Many of the people I know are telling me that ISRO designed this as Chandrayaan was in orbit. If that's true, that's a WOW for me. Right up there with Hubble geting a second life.

The pressr also hints that data crunching is on and some interesting results are expected. When ISRO says THAT, there's definitely something there.

Pradeep

Presumably this is the long-term fix for the earlier problem of overheating. It follows that they would have planned it since entering orbit, not before arrival. None of the investigations will be helped by being higher, except that the field of view (swath width) for the various cameras will be wider.

I think we're about due for some new images!


Phil

Chandrayaan and LRO are expected to work in tandem in lunar orbit.
Radar signals sent from Mini-SAR on the chandrayaan are expected to picked up my the Mini-RF on the LRO.
I read this in todays paper but cant find the article.NASA and ISRO officials are working it out.They said that such a joint experiment will boost their chances of finding water-ice.

Yes, it's a bistatic radar experiment - one spacecraft transmits a signal which is reflected off the surface and picked up by the other. It's been done before with the reflected signal detected on Earth, but that is very limited in geometry. Using two spacecraft opens up a much wider range of observations.

Phil

Mini-RF Litho:

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/352304main_mini-rf_litho.pdf

New images from Chandrayaan-1:

http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/ImageMoon.htm

http://isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/ImageMoon.htm

Even more images have been published today!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pune/Ch...how/4618508.cms

According to this publication, analysis of the data is expected to come out with in six months.

There's something more interesting: It's said that there are some signals of water!

I hate to be a misery Zvezdichko but it sounds to me like he could be talking about the controversial signs of water already found there by other space probes. I hope I'm wrong though, it's very exciting if he's not!

I put this question to the moon at isro dot gov dot in id, which is a public email id given for questions related to Chandrayaan 1 on its website. I got a reply from the Mission Director, M Annadurai himself. In relation to the thermal issue he replied that these were initial problems they faced in lunar orbits and those were fixed and overcome. He said, the reason for orbit raising was as given in the press release -> http://isro.gov.in/pressrelease/May20_2009.htm

So, essentially, as of January, Chandrayaan 1 has been performing as per expectations and has obtained 4 TB of data. Also, today is a great day for us. We hope to catch Kaguya crash tonight. And for a brief moment (till LRO gets up there), we will be the only country in orbit around the Moon. (Yippee etc.).

I've also heard that Chandrayaan 1 will be tracking the Kaguya crash. It's going to be at midnight our time.

Brief request: Please write to the above email id before geting carried away by speculation. They may not be as prompt as NASA or ESA but they do get around to answering all emails.

Pradeep

I think that Mr. Nair is repeating the earlier claim from M3 (?) about confirming presence of water. If you're in India doing outreach, you would now that it's important to be repetitive since many of the people would not be aware of the results beyond the fact that we have a lunar probe up there. So, you tend to repeat it as often as you can so that atleast someone will remember. It might also have been a quote when Nair was ennumerating some of the successes of Chandrayaan 1.

Lunar Survey Spacecraft Develops an Attitude Problem
Pallava Bagla
India's first moon probe, Chandrayaan-1, has suffered a critical malfunction that jeopardizes the remainder of the mission. According to the Indian Space Research Organization, Chandrayaan-1 achieved all of its mission objectives before the malfunction was detected in May; some foreign scientists with instruments aboard Chandrayaan-1 concur that the probe performed well. But the spacecraft, which entered lunar orbit last November, can no longer orient itself with high precision.

From: Here!

A star sensor for attitude control:

http://www.ndtv.com/news/sci-tech/chandray...e_cut_short.php

Too bad, but they did accomplish a lot already. It will be good to see more results later in the year.

Phil

http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/Jul17_2009.htm

An official statement from ISRO, plus several new photos:

http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/images...rayaan/ph01.jpg

http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/images...rayaan/ph02.jpg

http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/images...rayaan/ph03.jpg

An update:

Chandrayaan-1 successfully photographs the Solar eclipse from lunar orbit:

http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/moon_images.htm

Click to view attachmentModified the first series of 8 images to show the shadow that little bit better.

John

Rough Eclipse animation, already posted on a less-proper thread:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=143953

http://www.isro.org/pslv-c11/photos/moon_images.htm#moon

New images of craters were published.

http://lunarnetworks.blogspot.com/2009/08/...nces-first.html

Lunar magma ocean theory advances - first published results from Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/featur...n-20090803.html

Moon Mineralogy Mapper images planet Earth.

http://www.isro.org/pressrelease/scripts/p...aspx?Aug29_2009

Bad news.

Contact with Chandrayaan-1 was lost ;(

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/isro-loses-radi.../100223-11.html

More on the issue

EDIT: Even more:

Link to an article which states that the mission is "virtually over" http://www.deccanchronicle.com/national/ra...n-lost-isro-069

EDIT 2: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/In...how/4948492.cms

Chandrayaan-1 moon mission over: ISRO

too bad!

Bummer. I hope they figure out what went wrong, the worst kind of failue is one you learn nothing from.

I wonder if it's related to the problem aboard the craft discovered several months ago. But after all, the spacecraft was put into a more stable orbit. A loss of signal could mean a problem with the transmitter, a problem with the onboard computer... it could mean a lot of things.

I don't have if they have any scenarios in such sases. For example, sending a command to reboot the computer, or something like that.

I'm thinking you are right. Unless they knew something was about to go, this is really soon to through in the towel on a missing spacecraft.

Too soon? Maybe. But maybe not. They're talking about the worst. The probe is not transmitting data, it's not responding to commands.

We should remember that many few spacecraft recover after a total loss of signal. Examples? Probably SOHO. Yes, SOHO. But many other examples tell us that loss of signal means failure.

Ouch...that's a tough one.[/size] It was expected to finish off the remaining 5% observation operations again this October, wasn't it? But, perhaps, its new (safer???) orbit combined with the recent LRO link-up experiment may have pushed it too far. [size="2"]John

I'm guessing (hoping) that they got everything done with the joint radar mapping with LRO, and got all the data back from that?

It's disappointing, but nonetheless it is a partial success and according to ISRO the mission achieved most of its science goals. For India's very first planetary exploration mission, it's been pretty successful when you consider the many failures the USA and USSR had in their early days of space exploration.

The mission has also now created a layer of invaluable expertise in India for planning, building and operating planetary exploration missions. Forward with India's space programme!




PS: It also wouldn't hurt if ISRO learn some better PR too!

If...IF...this is truly the end for Chandrayaan-1, it nevertheless was one hell of an impressive first planetary mission by ISRO and they should be extremely proud of this achievement.

Absolutely.

http://www.siasat.com/english/news/efforts...ink-chandrayaan

India is trying to restore link with Chandrayaan-1, but the chances are slim.

I don't suppose they could have LRO try to send it commands?

Why do you think that would help? I'd be surprised if it were possible at all, given incompatibilities between the two craft, but why do you think a signal from LRO might work when a much stronger signal from Earth did not?

--Greg

Quite. LRO can't help in that regard. It might be possible for LRO to image Chanrdrayaan 1 in the MGS->MODY style perhaps. Check it's still there and hasn't gone 'poof'.

Doug

Interesting thought, if they ever get close enough to each other for that to be attempted. Would they even try that during LRO's prime mission, though? I'm sure it would require off-nadir pointing & possibly slewing during the shot, and therefore propellant expenditure.

Agreed!

I felt a little saddened about the loss of Chandrayaan-1, but that was all I felt. I was never emotionally connected to the mission.

In contrast, the loss of Phoenix was a teary moment for me. I believe that the contact with the mission will be restored despite the fact I realise the chances will be very, very slim. I try not to think that Spirit and Oppy will die some day too.It will be one of the saddest days of my life.

Perhaps Chandrayaan-1 had an issue with its star-tracker or something, and although functional, isn't orientated in such a way to allow communications with Earth. Having LRO try to transmit would increase that slight chance that Chandryaan-1 would receive a signal by there being two sources of a transmission for Chandrayaan-1's antenna to by-chance be orientated to.

I know it was a long shot.

There is still large % of people in india who thinks spending millions on such missions is waste and instead that can be spent on xyz problems.
this could be one reason why there is not much publicity. Hope things will improve over next missions... :-)

ISRO has a new site: http://www.isro.gov.in/ supposed to be better than the old one.


Link about failure reasons: [[ http://www.hindu.com/2009/08/31/stories/2009083157910100.htm ]]

Due to very high radiation in the atmosphere, power-supply units controlling both the computer systems on board failed, snapping the communication connectivity. Some devices were more susceptible to radiation and temperature fluctuations, which resulted in the computer power supply being cut. The kind of radiation problem faced was not anticipated, Mr. Nair said.

“We have learnt some valuable lessons, and we have to look for devices that are less susceptible to radiation in future expeditions. We have set up an assessment committee to study all aspects. The Chandrayaan-II will not be delayed.”

Sorry to be brutal but I don't believe it's for good. Where's the old Chandrayaan-1 gallery? The one listed on the spacecraft site (http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/home.htm) is incomplete and the old ISRO version had several more images published there.

The new site has only several Earth images from Chandrayaan-1. The others look lost.

There's a difference between a one-in-ten longshot and the kind of longshot that makes flipping a coin twenty times in a row and getting heads every time look like a good bet.

That said, the "official" explanation that failure resulted from "very high radiation in the atmosphere" seems even sillier. The moon doesn't have any atmosphere to speak of, and it's hard to buy the idea that there's more radiation in lunar orbit than elsewhere in cislunar space. If it was that sensitive, how did it make it through the Van Allen belts?

--Greg