Chandrayan-1 moon mission

Sid · Post by **Sid** » 30 Nov 2008 04:21

some unmarked video of TMC. I am not sure if its fake or real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdX5heRH ... re=related

A Sharma · Post by **A Sharma** » 03 Dec 2008 04:50

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 03 Dec 2008 05:18

ArmenT wrote:In Earth based systems, you can use a convection currents to carry heat away from the parts, which is why lots of electronics have cooling fans. Unfortunately this is obviously not possible in space. Since the outside of the craft is insulated to prevent the sun's rays from heating it when it faces the sun, this would also imply that heat from inside also cannot escape out in the other direction easily. I'm guessing that this is why 50C is a problem for the electronics?

You can have a workaround to create convection for heat transfer in space or zero gravity: As SSSalvi mentioned, heatpipes are the key. VSSC does some good research on heat pipes.

I had a lot of interest in heatpipes during pre-historic times. pretty cool technology if you haven't checked it out yet.

prao · Post by **prao** » 03 Dec 2008 20:38

A Sharma wrote:Cutting edge
An afterthought

The MIP might have been an afterthought and may have been added because a person of Shri. Abdul Kalam's stature suggested it. It is also possible to claim that its inclusion compromised the mission's original objectives. But these arguments do not take into consideration the pride, joy and interest in space exploration that the little 35 kg MIP triggered in Indians everywhere. The MIP legitimately made India the third or fourth nation to send an object to the moon (fourth if you consider the deorbiting of Hiten a legitimate landing which would make Japan the third nation). The crashing of CY1 on to the Moon's surface at EOM would not have achieved all of that. That alone was worth the inclusion of the MIP and was really a small price to pay.

Also Shri. Annadurai's statements show that there were positive technological outcomes due to the inclusion:

“I would not say we paid a price. It was a trade-off,” he said. “This forced us to optimise the mission to the maximum without giving up system redundancy. This challenge has resulted in an improved overall mission performance. We could carry out all operations with great precision. This has given confidence for efficient execution of future missions,” he added. According to him, the satellite now has about 150 kg of the propellant, which is 50 per cent more than what is required (including the margin provided for in the fuel budget) for a lifetime of two years.

It is typical of Frontline that while it explored the view of why the MIP should not have been added, it did not explore the reasons for why it was the right thing for India. After all we're talking of Indian pride not Chinese!

SSSalvi · Post by **SSSalvi** » 04 Dec 2008 16:06

MIP experiment must have given a real operational experience of communication between a Lunar lander ( The MIP ) and a Lunar orbitting spacecraft ( the Yaan ) which would not be possible if we crash the Yaan in its end of life period.

I am sure that such circumstances do call in understanding and overcoming of several communication problems like ( my guess .. do not know the official list ) pointing of Lander antenna to Yaan, Doppler RATEs, mcrowave solar flux reflection from the surface of moon ( degrading the receiving sensitivity ) etc.

It is good to experience these problems and to take corrective mesures in a MIP oppertunity rather than facing these problems in actual return journey mission planned next.

prao · Post by **prao** » 04 Dec 2008 19:02

Good points all.

juvva · Post by **juvva** » 04 Dec 2008 19:35

Would it be possible to attempt an kind of survivable soft landing for the CY mother ship at eom.
May be spin up and use the LAM and attitude thrusters.....??
Thanks

prao · Post by **prao** » 04 Dec 2008 21:31

juvva wrote:Would it be possible to attempt an kind of survivable soft landing for the CY mother ship at eom.
May be spin up and use the LAM and attitude thrusters.....??
Thanks

Interesting idea. Some points to consider:

Currrently CY1 has 50% more fuel than it requires for the 2 yr mission so perhaps there will be fuel left over at EOM both for deorbiting and for braking just before touchdown.

Attitude thrusters are present and could possibly spin up CY1 for stability (not clear if they have the capacity to generate sufficient spin rate - one source I saw appeared to say that they generate a spin rate of 3.0E-4 deg/s during attitude control. I wonder if this is their maximum capacity for some reason or if it's just the maximum used) Of course given the relation between force and acceleration, if the thrusters are run longer, the spin rate will be higher so I'm not sure there would be a limit due to physical reasons.

The momentum wheels will need to be switched off I'd think before any spin up was attempted.

The descent needs to be monitored continuously which means that CY1 should be able to determine its bearing and altitude during descent. The MIP had a radar altimeter for determining altitude. The CY1 does not but it has a mini SAR and a Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument. I wonder if these can be adapted to serve the purpose during descent. Without continuous realtime monitoring of altitude, CY1 will not be able to optiimally fire the LAM for braking since only an estimate of velocity and altitude can be made.

etc. etc.

If practical problems like these can be overcome .... why not?

Added later: It should have occured to me that the momentum wheels can be used for attitude maintenence during descent with the attitude control thrusters being used as required to orient the SAR or LLRI periodically to determine alt. and then reorient CY1 for braking. If this is possible, it is a better option - spinning introduces more complications.

vavinash · Post by **vavinash** » 05 Dec 2008 03:46

If CY-1 has enough fuel for one more year then wouldn't it be better to deorbit it to 50 km orbit at the end of 2 years and get higher resolution images of areas of interest.

rahulm · Post by **rahulm** » 05 Dec 2008 06:46

Due to communication time lag between earth and moon, the final descent to and landing on the moons surface has to be autonomous. I suppose this would require non trivial re-configuration of the yaan's mission profile and therefore unlikely.

De-orbiting to lower altitute seems doable and more useful.

Re-tasking to become MIP2 is easy.

prao · Post by **prao** » 05 Dec 2008 08:14

rahulm wrote:Due to communication time lag between earth and moon, the final descent to and landing on the moons surface has to be autonomous. I suppose this would require non trivial re-configuration of the yaan's mission profile and therefore unlikely.

De-orbiting to lower altitute seems doable and more useful.

Re-tasking to become MIP2 is easy.

True which makes it all the more interesting and a worthwhile exercise to see how much more can be coaxed out of what's available. If it's technically feasible (can the SAR/LLRI be reconfigured for example to make descent autonomous?) - I'm sure a study on technically feasibility shouldn't take too much time or effort - it only requires a spirit of adventure and a flexible mindset.

Moving to a lower orbit is trivial - the ground speed goes up marginally at 50 km to about 1611 m/s so the TMC should still be useful, don't know about the remaining instruments. But given the earlier issue with thermal management, that might be a bigger and more persistent issue at 50 km - a easy study for feasibility I should think. However I'm not sure that that orbit will be significantly more useful. 2.5 m resolution to be sure but is that necessarily better? Would time be enough?

On a tangent - what were the constraints on using a 50 km orbit in the first place? Won't that require less fuel for maintenence than a 100 km orbit? Would thermal mgmt. be a significant issue? Longer mapping period?

vavinash · Post by **vavinash** » 05 Dec 2008 09:59

The resolution doesn't scale linearly but as square right? So 1.25 m resolution should be possible from 50 km. The thermal issue is significant but by then all other equipment except the TMC would have finished their job and can be switched off.

prao · Post by **prao** » 05 Dec 2008 20:00

Something half as far away will appear twice as big. A 5 m object that was one pixel wide will be two pixels wide - hence 2.5 m resolution (approximately). It is an approximately linear relationship between the inverse of the distance and the size.

However, you'll see four times the detail - consider a 5 m square at 100 km that occupies one pixel, at 50 km because it has doubled in size (h and w) it now occupies four pixels. The resolution is still 2.5 m though

Edited once to clarify

juvva · Post by **juvva** » 05 Dec 2008 20:07

Another open minded idea ( a.k.a wild idea ):

Is it possible to put the CY craft into an earth return trajectory at eom, this way isro will get experience in navigating on the return trip, for a future sample return mission (CY3 ?) ??

prao · Post by **prao** » 05 Dec 2008 23:18

How about an asteroid intercept if one is around? That should be exciting no? If requirements are reasonable (1st calculation to perform - 440 N? thrust, fuel specific impulse, available fuel ..?) all sorts of things can be tried.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 06 Dec 2008 00:24

Wrt to some discussion here, a few random points (using just basic physics)

The resolving power is linear with distance - Theoretical limit is:
Resolution = (Wave Length of light)*(distance between camera-object) /(diameter of lens)
(and one can reach pretty close to theoretical value)

For say 500nm (Bluish portion of spectrum) and 5 cm lens above 100Km this is about 1 meter.
(5 m is quite a good resolution and if one really wanted a better resolution, one can still achieve it without going closer, if one wants to)

(For perspective, one would have about ~30m resolution with naked eye and with a decent binocular one can have 5m or better resolution form 100 km)

For discussion on temperature inside the space craft: Few Basic points.

1. Amount of radiation energy it receives is about 1.3kW per square meter of the "sunny" part. (sigma*T^4 - and sun's outside temp is about 6000K). If it was a perfect black body it will absorb all that radiation but as it is not, most part is just reflected back (or if there are photo cells gets converted into electric energy etc).. but absorbed energy will raise the temperature .. till the equilibrium is reached by..
2. It will radiate ~ (sigma*T^4 ) energy, which is about 600W per square meter (all surface) for black-body (actual emissivity is between 0 and 1 - probably closer to 0.2 or so - so this is only a few hundred watts/sq. meter) and 50 deg (~320K) temp -- till equilibrium is reached.
3. Second law of Thermodynamics - Any "air-conditioning" or "cooling with fan etc" will not help the closed system (That if you run any air-conditioning or conventional type cooling can not reduce the temperature as a whole and in fact make it hotter)
4. Distance from sun does not change much (Moon's orbit around sun is nearly circular - within 2% ) so amount given in (1) will not change, more than say 4% from average.
5. Since the orbit of CY is polar and fixed (wrt to distant stars) the amount of time it stays in "day light" per orbit, changes from 100% to about 50% after 3 months.. and back to 100% after further 3 months. Of course, how much area is exposed to the sun depends on orientation (CY is not a perfect sphere) of the space craft.

With respect to "de-orbit" or "50 Km orbit" etc ..- Obviously, once any orbit is reached, theoretically there is no fuel required to keep CY in a (any stable) orbit (50Km vs 100Km etc do not make any significant difference as far as fuel needed - after the orbit is achieved) . In practice the fuel is used to say re-orient (rotate etc) the air-craft- .. do minor orbit corrections etc (Orbits get disturbed a little because moon is not a perfect sphere, there are bodies like earth, Jupiter, sun which tugs and disturbs the "theoretical" two-body orbit).. In all fuel, IMO may be enough to "deflect the orbit - enough to hurl it to the moon, but not enough for it to come back to earth or get into another lower (or higher) planned (and not just a random) orbit

(Of course, after 2 years, if there is still enough fuel left, one can extend the life, or do other things

)

prao · Post by **prao** » 06 Dec 2008 02:30

The theoretical resolving power of an optical system is not really relevant to CY1 with regards to orbital changes, no?

The thermal issue has to do with thermal radiation from the moon not the sun. Do you have any lunar radiation numbers that might tell us how it will increase at lower orbits?

I think there's probably enough information in the public domain to enable calculation of what can be done with left over fuel (say 50 kg). The specific impulse of the fuel can be estimated. I wonder if Arun_S' ROCKSIM can be used for this purpose?

A rough calculation (w/o verification if data is current) shows that the LAM was fired for 79 mins approximately and consumed about 700 kg of fuel. So 50 kg fuel at EOM will be good for about 5.6 minutes. Assuming for convenience a mass of 440 kg at EOM (not a bad estimate) and engine thrust of 440 N (how convenient), the fuel can result in a deltaV of about 340 m/s applied unidirectionally or about 1200 km/hr. I have no feeling for conditions at 100 km above the moon so I leave this as an exercise for the reader

Can CY1 then be adapted for some other purpose? Don't know but it will seal ISRO's reputation if it can. I'm assuming there are some free thinking types at ISRO who're thinking up ideas.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 06 Dec 2008 03:40

The theoretical resolving power of an optical system is not really relevant to CY1 with regards to orbital changes, no?

Theoretical resolving power is upper limit (and in fact very close to actual result) and is enough to get a good idea of actual value. (In Nice cameras/telescopes etc the objective lens is still the single most critical factor which limits this, and that's why most of the telescopes are known by the diameter of there lens/mirror eg 5m telescope at Mt Palmor etc) ... my one point there was one need not go closer ( say from 100Km to 50 Km) assuming 5m (or a little better) resolution is all we decided upon.

The thermal issue has to do with thermal radiation from the moon not the sun. Do you have any lunar radiation numbers that might tell us how it will increase at lower orbits?

Let us see ..As moon has no atmosphere, only radiation (S-B law) has to be considered and that shows that thermal radiation from moon is still smaller than that due to sun. (Assuming rocks at moon in daylight are at 100C - this will be about - 6*10(^-8)*(370^4)(1+h/r)^(-2) (h is height above the surface and r is radius of moon) When I calculated this, I was a little surprised as it was larger than I would have guessed - but it was consistent with as CY's data I happen to see some place)..since 100Km is only about 5-6% of the moon's radius - not much difference - about 10% - if the CY is 50 or 100Km above - You can estimate. The radiation from night-moon's side will be a few a hundred watts - and day-moon side about 1Kw.) ..Basically how reflective the CY1's surface is and how much area (in normal to sunlight) and how long it is in sunlight have far more significant effects than its height from moon's surface.

(This is assuming I am not missing something obvious

- and not to forget that just 5-10% increase/decrease could make a difference )

For orbital/fuel consumption etc calculation, simple calculation (using Newton's Mechanics) can give the rough amount of delt-V, energy (fuel -consumption etc needed) - basically energy of an (elliptic - stable) orbit depends on its semi-major axis -only- and if you need to calculate the change in energy all you need (to an approximation) the two values of the semi-major axes)

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 06 Dec 2008 04:53

Some addition to above:
Google search gives < this article >

But to me it looks like, some thing is lost between what ISRO said and what was reported. I can not make much out of things like:
" The high atmospheric tempera ture over the moon has caused temperature inside the satellite to go up to over 50 degrees C, prompting scientists to look for measures to cool off the sophisticated instruments."
or "It is a usual phenomena because it is summer on the moon" or "The satellite is getting extra heat as it is in a straight line with the sun and the moon, (?) " the figures given in ""The moon, our satellite and the sun are in same line and this means our craft is receiving 1,200 watts of heat from the moon and 1,300 watts from the sun per meter square," are a little suspect, the sun figure looks correct, but 1200 watts from moon is what a perfect black-body at 380K (108C) will give per square meter.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 06 Dec 2008 06:35

Also from thanks to A Sharma for the link, just looked at the article link given by you -

But certainly wished the reporting was better,... for example, this:

diagram
From above, makes no sense to me.
(Moon's "poles" do not look like that, that is the line joining N-S pole of moon is always -nearly- perpendicular to the plane of orbit of moon to sun (or earth for that matter) .. it does not change .. - the inclination is only a few degrees (compared to 23 degrees for earth).

And I don't know what to make of, to put it mildly, "moon-earth vector" is "in line of" (or pependicular) of orbital plane. Wished the article is edited nicely so one does not get this kind of non-sense....

(perhaps the reporter misunderstood the orbital planes of CY1 etc..)

prao · Post by **prao** » 06 Dec 2008 07:58

For orbital/fuel consumption etc calculation, simple calculation (using Newton's Mechanics) can give the rough amount of delt-V, energy (fuel -consumption etc needed) - basically energy of an (elliptic - stable) orbit depends on its semi-major axis -only- and if you need to calculate the change in energy all you need (to an approximation) the two values of the semi-major axes)

We're not discussing transferring between two Lunar orbits are we? We're discussing a controlled descent or other scenarios that are more exciting than mere Hohmann like transfers.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 06 Dec 2008 09:28

yes scenarios are much more exciting and complicated and would require much much more math than a simple formula quoted here or there ...my point was, as I noted in the message "simple calculation (using Newton's Mechanics) can give a rough estimate on delt-V" etc (order of magnitude) calculations .. for details you would need much much more expertise than general physics formula.

What I find beautiful is that quite a few things could be calculated/estimated with very basic physics. (For example Newton - or simple formula - could have given the time period /Speed of CY1 if one knew just knowing how high it is from the moon's surface ... or estimated the resolving power by just looking at TMC (lens) etc ..)

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 07 Dec 2008 01:52

new lunar flyby by C1
mms://msrv2.wstream.net/isro_archive/TMC02.wmv

harbans · Post by **harbans** » 07 Dec 2008 16:29

^^^ Cool stuff! Good work ISRO!

Hope to see the TMC video too though.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 08 Dec 2008 21:52

i am waiting to see the crash video!

Arunkumar · Post by **Arunkumar** » 17 Dec 2008 11:24

Data of M3 onboard chandrayaan-1 released

http://m3science.geo.brown.edu/?cat=3

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 17 Dec 2008 20:07

So the first set of processed data with a story line comes out of somebody other than ISRO. That is what I thought will happen. ISRO is back to its old ways of doing no publishing of its own even on its web portal.

Arunkumar · Post by **Arunkumar** » 17 Dec 2008 21:19

ISRO's PR skills needs much to be improved. The website with all-black background with chandrayaan-1 clicky in font size-8 some where down on the page looks so uncool. No pains have been taken to give a decent write-up on the images and graphs.
On a different note NASA PR managers have managed to get Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter nominated for the TIME list of Best inventions of 2008 even before it has completed all its ground tests!! let alone delivering data.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packa ... 15,00.html

Kailash · Post by **Kailash** » 18 Dec 2008 00:20

We have to realize our achievements and take pride in them. These days presentation and publicity stunts are more important than the achievement itself.

Will there be specific calibration of the instruments to scan the dark side of Moon? What would be the mission delay due to the switching off of instruments during the Lunar summer?

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 18 Dec 2008 07:05

Kailash - What is meant by "lunar summer" here? Also what do you mean by "dark side" of moon? do you mean the night side?

Thanks in advance.

Kailash · Post by **Kailash** » 18 Dec 2008 18:52

Yes, whatever temperature raise that was not accounted for initially, which lead to the instruments being turned off.

The shadow side of the moon w.r.to the sun at any given time.

Nitesh · Post by **Nitesh** » 21 Dec 2008 09:43

India lunar craft problem 'fixed'
By Swaminathan Natarajan
BBC Tamil service

Indian space scientists say they have corrected a major heat problem that threatened India's first unmanned lunar craft Chandrayaan 1.

They say that the craft is now functioning normally after the heat was brought down.

India launched its first lunar mission on 22 October. It reached lunar orbit in the first week of November.

But soon after that the temperature inside the probe went up to 50C, endangering the mission.

Project director M Annadurai told the BBC: "Due to various measures we took, now the temperature has come down below 40C.

"All the 11 instruments carried on board are working normally."

The heat rise had prompted scientists to take urgent measures.

The problem arose because of very hot temperatures during lunar orbit.

A lot of onboard equipment was switched off and the satellite was tilted by 20 degrees. "The lunar probe has also been brought back to its original position," M Annadurai added.

The Indian lunar mission aims to map the Moon's surface, look for traces of water and the presence of helium.

The mission is regarded as a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with other space-faring nations in Asia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7791816.stm

vdutta · Post by **vdutta** » 21 Dec 2008 10:12

First Peek at M3 Data!

http://m3science.geo.brown.edu/?p=19

We are thrilled to finally be able to share with our colleagues and the public a look at the first set of data that our Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument collected! M3’s first look at the Moon occurred on November 22, 2008 when we acquired some new data for the Orientale Basin.

The first image is a “context” image, whose purpose is to allow you to get a feel for where on the Moon the long, narrow M3 data strips are located. It shows part of one orbit of Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) data superimposed on Lunar Aeronautical Chart (LAC) 108. This LAC sheet covers the southern portion of the Orientale Basin, a large impact structure on the Moon’s western limb. North is up. Major geological features in this orbit of M3 data include basaltic materials in the basin center, impact melt related to basin formation, Orientale basin massifs (mountains), and dark pyroclastic volcanic materials in the south. The LAC sheet background image is the 750 nm Clementine UVVIS basemap. The M3 strip is 40 km wide, and was acquired in the instrument’s lower-resolution mode at a spatial resolution of 140 m/pixel. The blue box identifies the subset region shown in later figures.

This second image is a subset of a longer M3 “image-cube” acquired across the Oriental Basin. To create this image using a two-dimensional detector, one line of spatial information (40 km in width with 300 elements) is acquired simultaneously with all channels in the spectral dimension. As the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft moves along an orbit from pole to pole, the second dimension of spatial information is obtained line by line forming the image shown. A full spectrum from 420 to 3000 nm is thus acquired for every spatial element within the scene ( altogether 182,000 spectra for this subset!). These M3 low-resolution data consist of 86 spectral channels continuously spaced from 420 to 2980 nm. Example spectra for four small areas are shown in the next image. The areas are located just to the left of the numbers in the figure above which correspond to the spectra labeled in the next image.

Our third image (really a figure) is a plot that shows some example visible to near-infrared spectra extracted from the M3 subset across the Orientale Basin. Number labels refer to the location of each spectrum in the previous image. Prominent absorption features (arrows) are seen near 1000 and 2000 nm for the two small craters #2 and #4. These spectral features are due to iron-bearing pyroxene at those locations. Subtle differences between the shape and wavelength of these pyroxene features indicate differences in pyroxene composition associated with magnesium, calcium, and iron content. Most lunar soil spectra, such as spectrum #3, have very weak absorption features, but exhibit an overall trend in which reflectance increases toward longer wavelengths (we call this trend a red-sloped continuum). Spectrum #1 exhibits no evidence for the presence of iron-bearing minerals but is very bright. This mountain, and several like it in this scene, is composed almost entirely of the mineral plagioclase forming a rock called anorthosite. The presence of anorthosite plays a central role in the early “magma ocean” formation of the lunar crust.

Finally, we have a set of three images of the subset of M3 data for the Orientale region. These images contain 300 spatial elements (pixels) across the 40 km field of view, providing 140 m resolution. On the left is one spectral band at 750 nm in which the signal is entirely reflected solar light. The middle figure is a color composite of processed data that accentuates compositional differences. The blue to red colors represent the slope of the lunar continuum in the near-infrared. The green color is an indication of the abundance of iron-bearing minerals such as pyroxene ( as measured by an integrated band depth derived from 26 channels of continuum removed data between 790 and 1290 nm). The image on the right is a single M3 spectral band at 2940 nm. This image contains significant thermal emission in the signal and is particularly sensitive to small variations in local morphology. These new data provide mineralogical constraints on geologic processes that occur within the Orientale Basin. The dark mare region in the north-east part of the image contains the greatest abundance of iron-rich minerals and is basaltic in composition. Although a few small areas of iron-bearing minerals occur within the impact melt formed by the basin impact (seen along the left and bottom of the image), this material is very plagioclase rich, and several mountains and blocks are essentially pure anorthosite.

Please check back to this site for updates! New results will be released periodically!

vdutta · Post by **vdutta** » 21 Dec 2008 10:14

NASA Instrument Inaugurates 3-D Moon Imaging

Source

The left figure is a color composite of processed data that accentuates compositional differences in the moon's Orientale region. The image on the right contains significant thermal emission in the signal and is particularly sensitive to small variations in local morphology. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Brown

December 17, 2008

PASADENA, Calif. – Different wavelengths of light provide new information about the Orientale Basin region of the moon in a new composite image taken by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a guest instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper is the first instrument to provide highly uniform imaging of the lunar surface. Along with the length and width dimensions across a typical image, the instrument analyzes a third dimension – color.

This two-image figure, and other data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper Instrument can be found at: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11727 .

The composite image consists of a subset of Moon Mineralogy Mapper data for the Orientale region. The image strip on the left is a color composite of data from 28 separate wavelengths of light reflected from the moon. The blue to red tones reveal changes in rock and mineral composition, and the green color is an indication of the abundance of iron-bearing minerals such as pyroxene. The image strip on the right is from a single wavelength of light that contains thermal emission, providing a new level of detail on the form and structure of the region's surface.

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper provides scientists their first opportunity to examine lunar mineralogy at high spatial and spectral resolution.

"The Moon Mineralogy Mapper provides us with compositional information across the moon that we have never had access to before," said Carle Pieters, the instrument's principal investigator, from Brown University in Providence, R.I. "Our ability to now identify and map the composition of the surface in geologic context provides a new level of detail needed to explore and understand Earth's nearest neighbor."

The Orientale Basin is located on the moon's western limb. The data for this composite were captured by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper during the commissioning phase of Chandrayaan-1 as the spacecraft orbited the moon at an altitude of 100 kilometers (62 miles).

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper was selected as a Mission of Opportunity through the NASA Discovery Program. Carle Pieters of Brown University is the principal investigator and has oversight of the instrument as a whole as well as the Moon Mineralogy Mapper Science Team. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., designed and built the Moon Mineralogy Mapper and is home to its project manager, Mary White. JPL manages the project for NASA's Discovery Program in the Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was constructed, launched, and is operated by the Indian Space Research Organization.

More information about Chandrayaan-1 is at : http://www.isro.org/Chandrayaan . More information about NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper is at : http://m3.jpl.nasa.gov .

Avinash R · Post by **Avinash R** » 21 Dec 2008 10:18

Chandrayaan to be introduced as project in schools

The moon man of Punjab

Arun_S · Post by **Arun_S** » 21 Dec 2008 13:03

Second Moon flyby video now available:
Videos of CHANDRAYAAN-1: Lunar Flythrough - 2

RonyKJ · Post by **RonyKJ** » 24 Dec 2008 00:36

Raytheon's Chandrayaan-1 Sensor Successfully Activated

http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Raythe ... d_999.html

Raytheon has received confirmation from NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization that a water-detecting sensor system on the Chandrayaan-1 lunar-orbiting spacecraft
has been activated and is fully functional.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Dec 2008 01:46

SaiK wrote:new lunar flyby by C1
mms://msrv2.wstream.net/isro_archive/TMC02.wmv

i was expecting an earth-rise or earth-set shot!.. hopefully soon. still waiting for MIP video.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 25 Dec 2008 19:12

Chandrayaan-I instrument throws new light on moon surface

juvva · Post by **juvva** » 25 Dec 2008 21:47

New images released by ISRO ( "Coulomb C crater" ): http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/ImageMoon.htm