Indian Space and New Frontiers

After the first ever Lunar Mission was kicked off in Jan 1959 by USSR, US/USSR have launched a total of sixty missions in a matter of 18 years ending in 1976. After a gap of 14 years, in 1990, Japan kick started another round of lunar explorations, followed by US, Europe, China and India. [1] Though, the Japanese mission failed to meet the goals, it accomplished a significant feat in space transport. It successfully accomplished Low Energy Transfer, using Interplanetary Transport Network to enter moon’s orbit. Pretty cool stuff.

In any case, as recent as 2007, Japan sent out second mission - Kaguya (Sept 13, 2007) followed by China’s Chang’e-1 (Oct 24, 2007) and India’s Chandrayaan-I (Oct 22, 2008) and the new space age has begun.

There are significant similarities and differences between these missions

Mission:

• Japanese Kaguya orbits at approx. 100Kms and is supposed to last for at least one year.
  
• Chinese Chang’e-I orbits at 200Kms and is supposed to last for one year.
  
• Indian Chandrayaan-I orbits 100Kms and is supposed to last for two year

Mission Status and Information

• Quote "Japanese scientists showed off the latest results from their highly capable Kaguya spacecraft at a meeting of planetary specialists. (Check out the high-def video of a "full Earth" rising over the lunar landscape.) Team member Sho Sasaki told me that Kaguya has ample fuel reserves, enough to lower the orbital altitude from 60 to 30 miles and extend the mission through at least February" [2]

• Quote "Far more enigmatic is the Chinese orbiter Chang'e 1. A lot of hoopla accompanied its launch about this time last year. But few details have emerged since then. A small contingent of Chinese scientists had planned to describe early results from Chang'e 1 at a scientific meeting last March, but they were no-shows." [2]

• Quote "India’s Chandrayaan-1 moon mission has not only been a scientific and technological success, but it has been an international political winner. By incorporating instruments from Europe and the US as well as their own ones, and doing so in an open way, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proven itself to be, without question, one of the world’s top space agencies."[3]

Right from when India is weeks away from reaching moon's orbit, ISRO’s has provided continuous updates on health and orbital information of Chandrayaan-I. Some preliminary images and hundreds of frames have subsequently been shared in the open web. This demonstrates tremendous confidence, maybe over-confidence even, of ISRO. ISRO definitely deserves pat on the back entering the big-boy's club, brimming with confidence.



In the end, while Japanese and Indian mission’s information was made widely available in good detail, Chinese mission’s information had to be gleaned from Chinese Government’s propaganda, and not much good news coming out so far.

Co-operation:

Indian mission stands out in this front as well. ISRO fostered international co-operation by giving a free ride to six instruments (3 from ESA, 2 from NASA and 1 from Bulgaria). While some feel that a “completely Indian” mission would have provided better focus on Indian accomplishment, it is a good move to be inclusive in an area where co-operation is the key.



One example is US-led effort for International Space Station (ISS) in 1984. ISS was a joint effort of six space agencies (total of 16 countries). Russia was later invited in 1991, post-cold war. However, conspicuous by their absence are India and China.

India’s case is that of “Neither here, nor there”. During the cold war, India was considered to be in USSR camp and has been subject to crippling sanctions from US and the West at various points. India still hasn't found its stride by that time, but even as Indian space capabilities have matured later, it did not get the invited to the ISS party. While fighting the ensuing sanctions, Indian space community had to sweat it out from scratch for GSLV program, in terms of building Cryogenic Engines. In this long tortuous process, the agency has hardened and earned respect world over. And now, Indian initiative of Chandrayaan and co-operation with NASA and ESA puts them in a different league and gives India a leg up in future joint ventures, unlike China.

China is a different story. US-camp has traditionally been suspicious of Chinese intentions and its human-rights record. Trying to showoff anti-satellite capabilities haven’t done them any favors and is getting more isolated, with the exception of significant Russian co-operation in sending man to moon. So, it needs to be seen how China can join the international effort.

Worthwhile to note however, is that Chinese launch has been opened up in a limited way to Chinese citizens, making them a part of this exciting new journey. It’s a pity the Doordarshan/ISRO and Indian government couldn't’t care less about providing decent coverage. Reaching out to citizens is more important than reaching to out international scientific community, that is my opinion anyway.


Future of Space Exploration

From the words of father of Indian Missile program and guiding light to young minds, Dr. Kalam, Earth-Moon-Mars are one complex. ISRO has traditionally adopted down-to-earth goals of bringing the benefits of space missions to common man in terms of helping fishermen, educational satellites and remote sensing. ISRO has met its charter and given back a lot to the tax payers. ISRO now needs to look beyond and establish itself in such a way that it should be a natural part of any international space mission of the future. ISS is yesterday's news, EMM is the new frontier and ISRO needs to be in the forefront of new age of space exploration

Chandrayaan-I : Videos

More Videos

ISRO's video on Chandrayaan-I mission and its objectives. Pretty informative.

Another interesting video by Thejas (Embedded link not possible)

Video of launch from ISRO..


Amazing video from "insanepositive". Shows far off view of the vehicle going through the clouds.


Another video of the launch

Chandrayaan-I : For beginners

What does it take to go to moon? Why now? What is in it for us?

Moon is one object that catches fascination of humans like no other celestial body. “Chandamama Rave, jabilli raave..” is probably one of the first words Telugu kid would hear. This children’s song is a desperate effort by a mother to feed the kid, while distracting the kid by asking the moon to come and serve the food. For a kid, it almost seems to be within reach, as if an extended hand could grab it. From imagining that Moon would sail through the clouds to realizing Moon is a 385,000Kms away and not coming down any time, is a revealing journey for a kid. Chandrayaan-I is the first baby step to making this object of our fascination closer than it ever was.

After the second successful launch of the Polar satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C2) in 1999, which lofted Indian satellite OCEANSAT along with Korean and German satellites, Dr. Kasturirangan, then ISRO chair, proposed going beyond the earth’s orbit. Here is one effort to delve into the mission and timeline.

What does it take to reach moon?

I used to wonder what the big deal is about going to the moon. Didn’t we send couple of launch vehicles every year! Here is an analogy to better explain the finer details.

Imagine a hunter trying to hit a flying bird with a stone, analogy being moon is the bird and stone is Chandrayaan-I. And simply put, hunter has to make sure flight paths of the bird and the stone meet. For this,

• First, shooter has to assess the flight path of the bird.


• Secondly, shooter has to assess where in the flight path, stone should hit the bird.


• Third, hunter has to throw the stone in the right direction with enough velocity and angle, such that it will be at the right place and right time to hit the bird, not early not later. For this, one has to take into account velocity of the stone, earth’s gravity and other factors like wind.

The above is a gross oversimplification for our case. As one can imagine, the skill needed to replicate that with moon is incomparably high.

• First, we have to assess the flight path of the moon, easiest task of all.


• Second, we need to identify where Chandrayaan should meet the moon. Unlike the hunter in earlier example, Earth is rotating and revolving around the Sun while the Moon is revolving around Earth. So, relative positions of Earth and Moon need to taken into account. From earlier analogy, imagine trying to assess bird's flight path from a moving jeep, or for more fun, from rotating chair in a moving jeep.


• Finally, its all about throwing the satellite in the right direction with the right velocity and making corrections on the way, if needed.

Easy? Lets see :

Hunter-Stone-Bird :The first picture shows initial plan for Chandrayaan.

• Chandrayaan-I is first made to circle around the earth in increasingly large elliptical orbits (diagram below), nudging them into higher orbits requires switching on board thrusters at precisely the right place (Perigee-Point in orbit that is closest to earth). At various points while it is orbiting Earth, Chandrayaan-I goes through gravitational pulls of other celestial bodies including Sun and Moon. This needs to be closely accounted for.


• The distance the probe has to travel to meet moon is 385000 Kms, while moon’s diameter is approximately 3,774 Kms. Just like the bird, Chandrayaan should be at the desired point 3,85,000 Kms away at the precise time, not early, not later. And unlike our hunter-bird analogy, there little margin for error. After travelling 3,85,000 Kms, if the velocity of the craft is too low, it will crash into the moon or miss it all together. If the velocity is too high, it may just zoom past the Moon, without giving moon's gravity a chance to "catch" Chandrayaan.

So, it has to fall within moon’s gravity cleanly. Achieving this requires delicate maneuvering of the probe using on board rockets/boosters for course correction. In this plan, as it begins a third orbit, Chandrayaan would have been thrusted towards the moon. From above picture, it seems like if it misses the moon, then we pretty much loose the craft as it continues into infinity. This is closer to hunter-stone-bird analogy : If hunter misses the bird, he will loose the stone as well.

Hunter-Boomerang-Bird

Shortly before launching, new trajectory plan with more orbits was adopted. In this plan, Chandrayaan's orbit will be gradually raised, until it reaches an orbit that intersects with the moon. It is my interpretation that this is analogous to a boomerang. If the hunter uses boomerang to hit the bird and misses, boomerang still comes back to him. He has another chance to hit the bird.

Why now?

While we wait for Chandrayaan to reach its destination, it would help to understand the steps that finally led to this mission. While the end result catches our attention, we fail to appreciate the time and perseverence that is needed to get there. Here is the timeline from when the idea of moon travel started to get traction in the Indian scientific community.

May 1999 - Sriharikota : Second operational launch of PSLV vehicle. For the first time India has launched three satellites on one launch.

Oct 1999 – IAS 1999, Lucknow : The micro symposium on “An Indian case for going to the moon” was oranized under the aegis of Dr. Kasturirangan. This set the ball rolling for Chandrayaan-I. [1]

Feb 2000 – ASI meeting, Ahmedabad : Astronomical Society of India joined the discussions.

National Lunar Mission Task Force was constituted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) under the leadership of Dr. George Joseph. [2]

April 2003 : Peer group of scientists discussed the Study Report of the Task Team and unanimously recommended mission to moon. [2]

August 15 2003 : India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced. “Our country is now ready to fly high in the field of science. I am pleased to announce that India will send her own spacecraft to the moon by 2008. It is being named Chandrayaan-1″.

Nov 2003 : Government of India approved the Indian mission to moon called Chandrayaan-I.[3]

March 2004 : Announcement of Opportunity : ISRO Inviting proposals for scientific payloads on Chandrayaan-I [4]

June 2005 : Agreement for including European instruments on Chandrayaan-I signed (3 instruments)[6]

May 2006 : ISRO and NASA sign MOU for Chandrayaan-I (for 2 instruments) [7]

Oct 22, 2008 : Liftoff, Chandrayaan-I launched from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. India is sixth country to send mission to moon.

Oct 26, 2008 : Chandrayaan-I enters deep space as it enters EBN3.

What is in it for us?

This mission to moon is of great significance in terms of pushing the limits of Indian Space Research and understanding the dynamics of deep space. This revives the same sense of exploration and curiosity that has led our ancestors thousands of years back to establish trade links with Europe and spread the Indian region of influence throughout South East Asia. Though this civilization has lost its way in the past few centuries, it is time to set our home in order and look beyond tomorrow.

But above all, it makes us relevant in the new world order that is on the horizon.

Bharat 2020

Not too long ago, India used to be compared with China in all the growth charts and the whole world was gaga over the Indian Elephant and its ascent to stardom. But somehow, we have lost sight of goals.

Couple of our leaders gave us all a vision of 2020. But far from aiming for that goal, we are reduced to fighting fires that we have lit ourselves.

We are now heading in rudderless fashion towards tomorrow that will most likely ridicule us. This disturbing thought has pained me for last couple of years and is a motivation to pen my thoughts down. Bear with me as I learn to put together blogs.

In all the chaos, thanks to the visionaries, I could start my first blog (or second one counting the introduction) on a positive note. Cheers to Dr. Kasturirangan and Indian scientific community for giving us Chandrayaan-I. Keep it up ISRO.