India’s first moon mission Chandrayaan-1 which will blast off on 22nd Oct, the project which will cost Rs 386 crore, including Rs 100 crore for establishing Indian Deep Space Network near Bangalore that would receive the signals from the satellites.
The project in not covered under any insurance as Chandrayaan-1 is a scientific project, it would not require any insurance cover. “We have not taken any cover for this project,” S Satish, spokesperson of ISRO said. The Made-in-India rocket bearing the lunar spacecraft will lift off as per schedule provided the weather is right. As per the plan, the 1.5-ton Chandrayaan spacecraft will take approximately eight days to travel about 240,000 miles before reaching its final orbit 60 miles above the surface of the moon. A crash landing of a lunar vehicle on the moon’s surface is also planned.
According to insurance officials the cost of insuring space launches is extremely high due to high rate of failure. Also the risk almost entirely reinsured since Indian markets do not have the depth to cover launches on their own. Because of the high rate of failure the premium rates vary between 25-33% of the sum insured. “ISRO has a good track record of launches and can go for self insurance,” the official said.
The project in not covered under any insurance as Chandrayaan-1 is a scientific project, it would not require any insurance cover. “We have not taken any cover for this project,” S Satish, spokesperson of ISRO said. The Made-in-India rocket bearing the lunar spacecraft will lift off as per schedule provided the weather is right. As per the plan, the 1.5-ton Chandrayaan spacecraft will take approximately eight days to travel about 240,000 miles before reaching its final orbit 60 miles above the surface of the moon. A crash landing of a lunar vehicle on the moon’s surface is also planned.
According to insurance officials the cost of insuring space launches is extremely high due to high rate of failure. Also the risk almost entirely reinsured since Indian markets do not have the depth to cover launches on their own. Because of the high rate of failure the premium rates vary between 25-33% of the sum insured. “ISRO has a good track record of launches and can go for self insurance,” the official said.
The 3,042-pound Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft was launched at 0052 GMT Wednesday (8:52 p.m. EDT Tuesday) from the
The probe flew into space aboard a beefed-up Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, a 146-foot-tall rocket originally built to haul Earth observation satellites into orbit.
The PSLV flew east from the launch site, propelling the spacecraft to a velocity of more than 20,500 mph and reaching an initial orbit with a
. Chandrayaan 1,
The probe will fire its engine again Nov. 8 to enter lunar orbit. The burn is scheduled to begin at about 1227 GMT (7:27 a.m. EST) to place Chandrayaan 1 in an oval-shaped parking orbit. That orbit will eventually be lowered to a circular path about 62 miles above the moon.
Chandrayaan means "moon craft" in Sanskrit, the ancient language of
. More than half of the probe's 11 instruments come from outside
The payloads will be turned on and tested by the end of November before the spacecraft begins an operational mission lasting at least two years, officials said.
Scientists expect data from Chandrayaan 1 to help create the most detailed global chemical map of the moon showing mineral concentrations across the lunar surface. Researchers will also make a three-dimensional terrain map of the moon based on information yielded by the mission.
ESA-funded X-ray and near-infrared imaging spectrometers, called C1XS and SIR 2, will detect mineral signatures in soil on and just below the lunar surface. Both instruments are based on similar sensors that flew aboard
"The Apollo missions went down to the surface, but only in a limited number of spots, whereas Chandrayaan tries to do detailed imaging of the entire sphere of the moon," said Christian Erd, ESA's Chandrayaan 1 project manager.
SARA, the other ESA payload, will observe solar wind particles contacting the moon's surface to study its effects on the top layer of soil.
NASA provided a pair of instruments, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper and the MiniSAR radar, as part of the agency's effort to return to robotic exploration of the moon.
"The opportunity to fly NASA instruments on Chandrayaan 1 undoubtedly will lead to important scientific discoveries," said Michael Griffin, NASA administrator. "This exciting collaboration represents an important next step in what we hope to be a long and mutually beneficial relationship with
The Moon Mineralogy Mapper, nicknamed M3, is a visual and near-infrared imaging spectrometer designed to plot mineral resources at higher resolutions than any instrument before. M3 scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory hope the device will help them create mineral maps to find science-rich landing sites for future missions.
M3 will also look for direct evidence of pockets of water ice hidden inside craters near the lunar poles. Scientists believe there are frozen water deposits deep within the eternally dark craters due to high concentrations of hydrogen found there on previous missions.
The MiniSAR payload was developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The instrument will bounce radar beams off the lunar surface to look for signs of water ice packed inside the walls of deep craters near the moon's poles.
The combination of data from the M3 and MiniSAR instruments will allow researchers to determine how many craters could harbor the frozen water, NASA officials said.
ISRO scientists also built two spectral imagers, one focusing on near-infrared and another in the X-ray range, to help produce precise global maps of the minerals and soil contents on the moon's surface.
A laser system was also bolted to the spacecraft to determine its altitude above the moon and chart lunar surface topography.
Indian engineers also constructed the moon impact probe.
"It has been the dream of Indian scientists to send a satellite around the moon and then collect more data about the surface features, minerals and so on," Nair said. "That dream is going to come true through this mission."
Description
· Cuboid in shape of approximately 1.5 m side.
· Weighing 1380 kg at launch and 675 kg at lunar orbit.
· Accommodates eleven science payloads.
· 3-axis stabilized spacecraft using two star sensors, gyros and four reaction wheels.
· The power generation would be through a canted single-sided solar array to provide required power during all phases of the mission. This deployable solar array consisting of a single panel generates 750W of peak power. Solar array along with yoke would be stowed on the south deck of the spacecraft in the launch phase. During eclipse, spacecraft will be powered by Lithium ion (Li-Ion) batteries.
· After deployment, the solar panel plane is canted by 30º to the spacecraft pitch axis.
· The spacecraft employs a X-band, 0.7m diameter parabolic antenna for payload data transmission. The antenna employs a dual gimbal mechanism to track the earth station when the spacecraft is in lunar orbit.
· The spacecraft uses a bipropellant integrated propulsion system to reach lunar orbit as well as orbit and attitude maintenance while orbiting the Moon.
· The propulsion system carries required propellant for a mission life of 2 years, with adequate margin.
· The Telemetry, Tracking & Command (TTC) communication is in S-band frequency.
· The scientific payload data transmission is in X-band frequency.
· The spacecraft has three Solid State Recorders (SSRs) Onboard to record data from various payloads.
· SSR-1 will store science payload data and has capability of storing 32Gb data.
· SSR-2 will store science payload data along with spacecraft attitude information (gyro and starsensor), satellite house keeping and other auxiliary data. The storing capacity of SSR-2 is 8Gb.
· M3 (Moon Mineralogy Mapper) payload has an independent SSR with 10Gb capacity.
The TMC will image in the panchromatic spectral region of 0.5 to 0.85 �m with a spatial/ ground resolution of 5m, 10 bit quantization and swath coverage of 20 Km. The camera is configured for imaging in the push broom mode with three linear 4K element detectors in the image plane for fore, nadir and aft views in the along track direction of satellite movement. The fore and aft view angle is �25� respectively with respect to Nadir corresponding to B/H ratio of 1. TMC will measure the solar radiation reflected / scattered from Moon�s surface. The dynamic range of the reflected signal is quite large (>300), represented by the two extreme targets - fresh rock surface and mature mare soil. The other factors affecting the illumination are the seasonal variation, latitude-longitude of the scene and anisotropic reflectance of lunar surface. Radiometric range of 1024 is planned to cover the total dynamic range. Additionally in polar region where illumination is poor at all times, SNR improvement will be achieved, by setting the integration time �n� time the dwell time. The camera will have four gain settings to cover the varying illumination condition over Moon. TMC uses Linear Active Pixel Sensor (APS) detector with in-built digitizer. Single refractive optics will cover the total field of view for the three detectors. The output of the detector will be in digitized form. The optics is designed as a single unit catering to the wide field of view (FOV) requirement in the along track direction. The incident beam from the fore (+25�) and aft (-25�) directions are directed on to the focusing optics using mirrors. Modular camera electronics for each detector is custom designed for the system requirements using FPGA / ASIC. The expected data rate is of the order of 50Mbps. The dimension of TMC payload is 370 X 220 X 414 mm3 and would weigh about 7kg.
TMC payload is developed by ISRO
TMC uses Linear Active Pixel Sensor (APS) detector with in-built digitizer. Single refractive optics will cover the total field of view for the three detectors. The output of the detector will be in digitized form. The optics is designed as a single unit catering to the wide field of view (FOV) requirement in the along track direction. The incident beam from the fore (+25�) and aft (-25�) directions are directed on to the focusing optics using mirrors. Modular camera electronics for each detector is custom designed for the system requirements using FPGA / ASIC. The expected data rate is of the order of 50Mbps. The dimension of TMC payload is 370 X 220 X 414 mm3 and would weigh about 7kg.
TMC payload is developed by ISRO
