Chandrayaan-I comes to an end
Seema Singh -
Saturday, August 29, 2009 8:47 PM
As was feared on July 17, 2009 (when a star sensor malfunction in Chandrayaan-1 was first revealed) India's first lunar expedition came to an end today.
A rather sad day for Indians who have associated national pride and Indian technological prowess with this mission, even though ISRO has been launching several important communication and remote sensing satellites for years now.
However, unlike last announcement, which was first made to a TV channel exclusively and then when the media pestered the space agency for details, it hurriedly called for a press meeting, this time a statement has been issued promptly.
Late in the afternoon ISRO said: "Radio contact with Chandrayaan-I spacecraft was abruptly lost at 0130 Hrs (IST) on August 29, 2009. Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore received the data from Chandrayaan-I during the previous orbit upto 0025 Hrs (IST). Detailed review of the Telemetry data received from the spacecraft is in progress and health of the spacecraft subsystems is being analysed."
For all practical purposes, the mission is over even though the agency says it's due to on-board electronics failure and it is trying to revive the spacecraft. So far the spacecraft is still in orbit but might drift.
ISRO insists that most of the objectives of the mission have been achieved. But it's hard to believe that the mission has achieved in about 10 months what it purported to achieve in 24. Even if it was to build redundancy in data, in a scientific enterprise that is very significant.
On July 17 ISRO chairman said that the satellite's life would be shortened not because of the sensor failure but due to likely completion of its mission objectives ahead of schedule. At the same time he said the gyroscopes would perhaps substitute the star sensors and keep the mission alive for the remaining intended duration. Today, it says more electronics have failed.
So, there are technical glitches galore. If the star sensor failed due to excessive solar radiation, what about the set of other electronics? Is the failure also due to the harsh space environment?
The problem is ISRO's international partners in this mission are not yet commenting on the abrupt end. The space agency, at least so far, refuses to clearly answer what precisely would be lost if the mission is curtailed by more than a year. (But then no such orgnaization does, not so early.)
As is the ISRO practice, it will come out with an internal report analyzing the failure, and what it would do in future to prevent it. It'd be fair if ISRO also speaks about the possible setbacks in the experiments and their outcomes.
That said, let's remember that ISRO did have a text-book launch and this failure is not because the agency cut cost or corners. Technical glitches are part of space launches, as even with high-powered simulation, there's only so much that scientists can simulate, and predict. Of more than 85 lunar missions since the first one in August 1958, some 40 have failed or been a partial success for one reason or the other.
Let' hope Chandrayaan-II is pursued with renewed vigour. Even its progress will be keenly watched, this time by the entire nation.