Chandrayaan-2 may miss 2013 launch date

The hybrid Indo-Russian lunar lander with rover segment of ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 mission has been planned for 2013. Problems with the Sub-continent's indigenous heavy-booster are reported to be the cause [ISRO].

Kumar Chellappan
DNA, Mumbai
HT / Robert Zimmerman

If the estimates of space experts are anything to go by, India’s tryst with moon, Chandrayaan-2, may not happen as scheduled in 2013. Prime reason, cited by those in the know, is country’s inability to perfect the cryogenic engine technology.

“Unless you have the cryogenic engine technology, you will not be considered a space faring nation,” K Sasikumar, former head of Liquid Propulsion Centre of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) told DNA.

India has perfected the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) with which it can put only small satellites into the Low Earth Orbit, which is roughly 900 km from the earth. “We need heavy Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles (GSLV) for injecting heavy communication satellites weighing more than one tonne into the Geo-Synchronous Orbit (GSO), which is 36,000 km from the earth,” said Sasikumar.

Chandrayaan-2 project director Mylswamy Annadurai, however, refused to comment on the issue. “I am not authorized to speak to the media on the project,” he said.

Prototype of Chandrayaan-2 rover, as developed by August 2010.

Though ISRO tried to launch GSLV with an indigenously developed cryogenic engine in 2010, it plunged into the Bay of Bengal. India has launched seven GSLVs from Satish Dhavan Space Centre at Sriharikotta. Six of them were powered by cryogenic engines from Russia.

Though ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan claimed indigenous cryogenic engine would complete ground tests, a senior ISRO scientist said it will take years for us to fully operationalise and integrate the technology to the GSLV. “It is not an easy job. The fuel is liquid hydrogen and oxidant is liquid oxygen. You have to pump both liquid hydrogen and oxygen to create the energy and thrust needed to lift the heavy mission from the gravitational pull and put the payload into GSO,” said Nambi Narayanan, former chief of India’s cryogenic program.

Both Nambi Narayanan and Sasikumar had to leave ISRO following the 1993 spy scandal following which the cryogenic engine programme suffered a major setback.

“We don’t have right persons in right places in ISRO. No action has been taken over the FAC report [Failure Analysis Committee which went into the failures of two successive GSLV missions in 2010 submitted their findings and recommendations to the ISRO in early 2011] ,” said G Madhavan Nair, former ISRO chairman and an FAC member. He said the Antrix-Devas deal has been projected as a scam only as a diversionary tactic. “Till we perfect the cryogenic technology, we have to pay ARIANE, the European Space Consortium at French Guiana through our nose,” he said.

It is also said nations such as the United States, France, Japan and China do not want India to come up with its engines as they do not want India to challenge their monopoly in launch business. The US charges more than $50,000 per kg to launch a space craft while India would be able to bring down the cost to $18,000 per kg.

Nair new head of IAA

Bangalore, Oct 12 (IANS) India’s top space scientist G. Madhavan Nair has been elected president of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) at its general assembly in South Korea, the Indian space agency said Monday.

Nair, chairman of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has been vice-president of the IAA for four years prior to taking over the prestigious post Sunday at Daejeon in South Korea.

As an independent organisation of distinguished individuals elected by their peers for their outstanding contributions to astronautics and space exploration, the Paris-based IAA organises conferences and collaborates with other partner societies.

Nair, who is also secretary of the department of space, has been responsible for design, development and operationalisation of the indigenously developed polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV).

During his four-decade long association with the space agency (ISRO), Nair held various positions, including director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and the Liquid Propulsion System Centre at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.

Under his chairmanship since 2003, ISRO has successfully launched 25 missions, including India’s maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008.

India (ISRO) looks to space tourism, examining help from Russians

In addition to partnering with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) to build Chandrayaan II, India's lunar lander and rover follow-up to Chandrayaan I, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is reportedly reaching out to Russia hoping to start a space tourism venture.

From Space.com, via TG Daily:

Andrew Thomas

ISRO wants to buy non-reusable Soyuz TMA spacecraft and sell two of its three seats to fare-paying passengers. The value of the potential deal was not revealed.

"ISRO has applied for acquiring a spaceship for space tourists," said Russian space agency Roscosmos spokesman Alexei Krasnov, who added that the deal would be purely commercial and that the Soyuz would probably be piloted by a Russian cosmonaut.

Roskosmos currently charges about $35 million for a ten day tourist flight to the International Space Station. Moscow and New Delhi signed a space agreement last year, under which Russia will help ISRO in training Indian astronauts and provide technical backup enabling India to build its own manned spacecraft.

ISRO already has launch vehicles under development which could carry the Soyuz craft into orbit.

Read the story, HERE.

India moves forward on human spaceflight

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) PSLV being readied for launch at Sriharikota, on the southeastern coast of the Indian Sub-Continent.

Doug Messier at Parabolic Arc has posted updates regarding India's spaceflight ambitions.

View them HERE.

Chandrayaan 1 is off

All systems nominal, as ISRO's PSLV-C-11, carrying India's first Lunar spacecraft is in an excellent Earth Orbit, in preparation for TLI. "A textbook mission," according to Sriharikota.

Chandrayaan 1, was launched this morning from Sriharikota north of Chennai.

The US returns to lunar exploration aboard Chandrayaan-1, which is carrying two NASA instruments in its payload.

Speaking minutes after the successful liftoff from the spaceport off the Andhra Pradesh coast, about 80 km north of Chennai, Chairman of the ISRO, G. Madhavan Nair described the moment as "historic."

"India has started its journey to the moon. The first leg has gone perfectly. the spacecraft has been launched into orbit."

The 44.4-metre-tall 316-metric tonne rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C11), had a textbook launch at 00.20 a.m., (UT), placing Chandrayaan-1 into its scheduled transfer orbit around Earth within 18 minutes, as planned.

Nair pointed out that the launch had gone off perfectly despite heavy rain in and around the spaceport for the last four days. "We've been fighting the odds for the last four days," he said. But the weather relented by Tuesday evening, and there no rain when the launch took place in a cloudy morning sky.

From its geostationary transfer orbit, Chandrayaan 1 will use its on board liquid apogee motor and a series of complex maneuvers will take it to lunar orbit - November 8.

India's mission to the moon is the world's 68th. Of them, 64 have been launched by the US and the former USSR.

China and Japan launched their respective Chang'e 1 and Kaguya (SELENE) in September and October 2007, while ESA launched the SMART technology test platform that orbited the Moon from November 2004 until September 2006.

Because of a launch window conflict, NASA delayed the beginning of the LRO/LCROSS missions until at least February.

Chandrayaan prepares for Oct. 22 launch, "come rain or shine"

Perhaps the latest slight increase in the trickle of data from JAXA's Kaguya was prompted by the impending countdown of Chandrayaan 1 on-board the ISRO's polar launcher, to remind the lunar science community that Kaguya has been orbiting the Moon for more than a year.

Regardless, interest in Asia in on the increase, with more and more stories from the region repeating the news that Chandrayaan 1 is still on track for launch on Wednesday, Oct. 22.

Read a detailed account in The Hindu HERE.

ISRO: Manned Lunar Mission in 2014

Plans to use GSLV instead of PSLV for the project.

Even as it gets set for its first unmanned mission to the moon on October 22, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is busy making preparations for a manned mission to the moon in 2014. The proposed budget for the manned mission is around Rs 1,000 crore.

ISRO plans to use its Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for the manned mission because their Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is not capable of launching a load of over 1,500 kilograms. Even as the proposal is pending clearance, Isro is in the process of identifying the team for the mission. “Our chairman is very keen on the project getting approval. He has asked us to come out with complete proposals internally,” said MC Dathan, director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota Range.

On the proposal, he said a commission had done a preliminary study and the report had been submitted for approval of the Space Commission. “The commission has cleared the proposal and it has been submitted to the government. A high-powered committee is studying the report. It is expected to be cleared in about two months,” he added.

On training the crew, Dathan said, “The Indian Air Force has the capability. But we plan to develop a full-fledged training facility in Bangalore.”

Read the story from the Business Standard

Chandrayaan 1: Still on Oct. 22 Window

A little more than a year after the beginning of Japan's successful Kaguya mission began, M. Annadurai sees only the weather as a possible hindrance to the launch of India's Chandrayaan I, Oct. 22. The multi-national platform will carry experiments from eight nations, including Russia's LEND neutron sensor also installed on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The LRO/LCROSS mission is on hold until 2009.

An update from New Dehli and an Update from the BBC

The man who'll give India the moon

Praveen Bose / New Delhi Business-Standard

On the shoulders of the soft-spoken M. Annadurai rests a mission that will make history for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and for India. The man, who has worked on a dozen ISRO missions, is now the project director of the most ambitious of missions of ISRO till date. Annadurai, who went to a small school in his native Kothavady village near Coimbatore, is now preparing to send India’s first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan I.

Read more HERE.

Chandrayaan 1: The Road to Sriharikota

Tantilizingly close to an expected launch to polar orbit of the Earth and TLI to the lowest kind of "permanent" orbit available of the Moon, India's Chandrayaan 1 is reportedly on the way to the pad. With final check-out presumably complete near Bangalore, Chandrayaan should be on the way to the Indian Space Research Organisation's Sriharikota launch facility on the sub-continent's southeastern coast.

After it's transcontinental journey, the lunar probe will be integrated to India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C11. A 50 hour countdown is expected to get underway October 19.

ESA Ready for ISRO's Chandrayaan 1 Lunar Orbiter

The proven polar launching expertise of the Indian Space Research Organisation's facility at Sriharikota is preparing to become a difficult household word, as preparations continue to launch the first Indian lunar platform, Chandrayaan.

On board, as there will be on NASA's Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter & LCROSS, is a Russian neutron detector (LEND), for example, and both NASA and ESA, and Star City in Russia, are standing by to lend support for this third lunar polar orbiter launched within the past year. Countdown continues with a launch of Chandrayaan expected within the next few weeks. The vehicle is presently undergoing last-minute "real-space" testing and integration in Bangalore.

Kaguya, the Japanese (JAXA) "SELENE 1" orbiter will soon have been carrying out experiments in a stable, somewhat eccentric orbit since 2007. While what precisely their orbiter is capable of, having released only an occassional news release and only a single, briefly controverial photograph, the first Chinese lunar mission Chang'e Both orbiters are adding daily to the growing datasets still under analysis from Lunar Prospector and Clementine, and a continuum stretching back to the first orbiters and landers in the 1960's.

ESA reports on their preparation for Chandrayaan HERE.

India to launch lunar mission soon

New Delhi - India will launch its first unmanned space craft—Chandrayan I— in the last quarter of this year. The Moon mission would capture images of the lunar surface.

“The mission is aimed at carrying out high resolution mapping of topographic features in three dimensional and to harness the science payloads,” the ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said.

Chandrayan I will travel in a polar orbit around the moon and pay special attention to gathering data on the polar icecaps that may contain traces of water.

Nair said that the lunar craft would take at least two years to cover the entire moon’s surface.

Talking about ISRO’s future plans, the Chairman said that the space agency would launch two commercial satellites for the European Union (EU), and is also planning to launch a geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) with an indigenous cryogenic engine.

Stating ISRO’s plans to launch 70 missions in the 11th Five Year Plan period, he said that the number of missions would be three times more than missions in the past five years.

—iGovernment Bureau (verbatum)

PSLV-C9 blasts off from Sriharikota

Indian Booster lofts 10 satellites into polar orbit
Times of India

SRIHARIKOTA: India's PSLV-C9 blasted off into space, carrying ten satellites including the country's latest remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2A, from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre here on Monday.

Scientists cheered as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its thirteenth flight, soared into the clear sky in a perfect lift off at 9.23 am from the second launch pad. Besides the 690 kg CARTOSAT-2A, the PSLV is also carrying ISRO's Indian Mini Satellite-1 (IMS-1), weighing 83kg, and eight nanosatellites built by universities and research institutes in Canada and Germany.

While the CARTOSAT-2A, carrying state-of-the-art panchromatic camera (PAN), will be used for mapping purposes and management of natural resources, the IMS-1 will be used as a platform for trying out advanced technology in the future.

India planning manned moon flight ~ 2015

Khabrein.info is confidently reporting late this evening of plans for a manned expedition to the moon by the Indian Space Research Organisation. The unconfirmed time frame places Indian astronauts on the lunar surface before the proposed Ares I booster manages to place its first Orion CEV in Low Earth Orbit in 2015.

This will certainly come as a surprise given India's present lack of any present manned space capabilities, unless a further cooperation agreement with Russia allows for a launch of a Soyuz from Sriharikota. It isn't clear whether Roscosmos might be willing to part with an Energia heavy-lift or just exactly what New Dehli's plans might be.

"A report with regard to manned mission to moon by 2014-15 is being submitted to the government for approval and budgetary allocation," Khabrein posts.

"The Space Commission, headed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will meet soon to review the report and take a decision," ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters in the Southern Indian city of Bangalore today.

"The report also speaks about collaborations and creating teams for coordinating the mission," Nair told reporters, Indo-Asian News Service reports.

"On India's space programmes," Nair said "ISRO would undertake 70 missions during 2007-2012."

"The proposed missions will be a combination of satellite launches with transponders for enhancing communications, education, health, remote sensing, observatory and exploratory." (sic)

"We will also undertake projects for re-entry vehicles and recovery capsules," Nair said."

All of which sounds to me like a good idea, if you plan to go to the moon anytime soon.

Chandrayaan 1 Schedule Delay

Bangalore - Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to Moon, scheduled to be launched in April, is likely to be postponed to June, an Indian Space Research Organisation official said on Tuesday.

The much-awaited mission was originally scheduled to be held on April nine or April 23 from India's spaceport of Sriharikota.

"Now, it looks doubtful in April. We are working on a (different) PSLV mission for March-April which is important. Chandrayaan-1 is likely to be postponed to June," an ISRO official told PTI here.

The official, however, said a final call on the launch date would be taken later this month.