After journey of 312 Days and orbiting moon about 3400 times scientists on earth lost contact with Chandrayaan I (first indian mission to moon). It may be recalled that Chandrayaan-I spacecraft was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre Sriharikota on October 22, 2008.
Planetary Society, India Salutes Chandrayaan I and congratulates ISRO ?
before we go any further Planetary Society, India likes to Salute Chandrayaan I which has provided new insights extending the understanding of moon while importantly inspiring thousands of future scientists, space explorers in true spirit of UNISPACE III Declaration of United Nation at Vienna in 1999.
Further society congratulates the Chairman Mr.Madhavan Nair, Project Director Mr.Annadurai and all the ISRO technical/non technical staff, associate organisations for their contribution to such historic mission to moon.
We extend our special thanks to ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India Limited) for its The fully-steerable 300-tonne antenna has been developed indigenously by Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) in collaboration with scientists from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and ISRO. The antenna begin tracking the lunar satellite within seven hours of its launch. Importantly its reported that antenna would support ISRO's inter-planetary missions in future. i.e india has capability to establish and communicate with spacecraft which would go to mars or beyond in future.
What happened to Chandrayaan I ?
Radio contact with Chandrayaan-I spacecraft was abruptly lost at 0130 Hrs (IST) on August 29, 2009. Whereas Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore received the data from Chandrayaan-I during the previous orbit upto 0025 Hrs (IST).
What does this Mean ?
Young readers this is the example for you : In day to day life we use cellphone for communication. Imagine you were sent to do a work on hill.All of sudden you phone doesn't receive any call or you cant send any call from it. This is what exactly happened. However the exact reason for the failure of communication is not yet clear.
Reason: In the above example it may because i.) no towers nearby ii) your phone slipped off your hands to break or causing damage to antenna inside it and your phone's battery and other hardware are still working good or alive. In case of your phone you can bring it back and repair or replace the failed parts.
however this is not possible for chandrayaan I. Importantly its clear that lost doesn't mean its dead.
70000 Images - using all the 11 Instruments - Brains to unravel the new truths about Moon:
The Spacecraft in its journey of 312 days making more than 3400 orbits around the Moon provided large volume of data from sophisticated sensors like Terrain Mapping Camera, Hyper-spectral Imager, Moon Mineralogy Mapper etc., meeting most of the scientific objectives of the mission.
That means its for us now to understand what it saw and uncover the new truths about our moon and extending human understanding about our celestial companion.
In recent past i.e. in 2008 (after 40 years of Apollo mission) researchers of Rice University found Water, Hydrocarbon molecules in the rocks brought from moon by the astronauts. so what will know using the data of Chandrayaan I is itself a great mystery.
90-100 Percent of Mission objective completed - 100% Technical success :
According to mission scientists 90-95 percent of mission objectives have been completed and it has been rated at 100 percent for technical success. Click here what are those objectives the project director was referring to actually.
If you are still not satisfied just look click here to know your self how different or efficient our mission to moon was.
Demoralizing - Unwanted Reports - Headlines - in print and electronic media:
We were surprised when we saw the headlines in various newspapers, television channels on 29th/30th August,2009. It seemed except few them almost all rejoiced the news to fill the airtime or space in their columns.
I am happy Chandrayaan I though being lost saved people of the country atleast for a day of day to day nonsense which you cant ignore these days. It was an opportunity for people to think beyond their four walled world again.
Lifespan of Chandrayaan Mission debated ?
According to one source pti Click here there are some who debate the actual life span i.e. 2 years (predicted by ISRO) of mission to be exaggerated.
However according to our space analyst Pradeep Mohandas "Mission to Moon by Japana - Kaguya, China - Chang'e-1 have surpassed 12 months limit. However all the missions including LRO have no more than 4-5 instruments, unlike Chandrayaan I 11 instruments".
So for what is the future of Chandrayaan I ? What will happen to it ?
Please come back here to know more from Pradeep Mohandas. According to one source chandrayaan after some time may crash into moon.
While saying all society would still carry forward its initiatives to create awareness about chandrayaan involving larger sections of society and await Chandrayaan II along with new truths that may be discovered in near future from Chandrayaan I's Data.
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