Chandrayaan-I Aborted

On Aug 29th, ISRO's press release made public the news on Chandrayaan-I
Chandrayaan-I spacecraft looses radio contact

• 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).

The first indication came with an innocuous sounding statement from ISRO on May 20th.
The Orbit of Chandrayaan-1 Raised

• After the successful completion of all the major mission objectives, the orbit of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, which was at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface since November 2008, has now been raised to 200 km. The orbit raising manoeuvres were carried out between 0900 and 1000 hrs IST on May 19, 2009. The spacecraft in this higher altitude will enable further studies on orbit perturbations, gravitational field variation of the Moon and also enable imaging lunar surface with a wider swath.

In an interview published on July 17th, ISRO Chief Madhavan Nair provided more information on issues faced as well as workarounds found. It is worth noting that going into the mission, India had very limited concrete knowledge on alien environment on moon. Chandrayaan-I is the first step in getting to know the moon and deal with unpredictables that will have to be learnt the hard way.

Chandrayaan's sensors fail; Craft's life may be reduced

• The ISRO chief said the mission has reached a stage where many of the electronics have failed and indeed some of the power supply instruments have malfunctioned.
• "But fortunately, we were able to energise the redundant units and keep them alive all this time. This has been going on for quite sometime. Unfortunately, during the last month we have lost one vital sensor," he said.
• "But to the credit of the ISRO scientific team, they have worked out a very innovative way of overcoming the problem," the ISRO chief said, but added that if some more failures happen, "then we will have problems".

NDTV's science writer Pallava Bagla writes on Aug 31st in BBC,
India moon mission a mixed success

• First, the spacecraft designed and built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) survived huge odds and successfully reached the Moon's orbit. This in itself was a big achievement since neither Russia or America succeeded in their maiden attempts; and there were several failures even before they got anywhere near the Moon.
• So did India ride on the shoulders of earlier successes?Certainly not, since the know-how and technologies to go to the Moon are just not available for the asking. Each nation has to learn on its own. India experimented and did that with complete success.

• The Indian mission was in certain respects much more challenging than the Chinese maiden lunar mission which was a simple national orbiter. Chandrayaan-1 was literally a two-in-one mission, since the main satellite was to orbit at 100km above the Moon and then a tiny gadget the size of a computer monitor was to attempt a landing on the Moon surface.
• No nation to date had succeeded in both a lunar orbiter and an impactor at the first attempt. This was more than an experiment. It was also a brave global geo-political statement since the probe that crash landed on the Moon also permanently placed India's flag on the Moon.
• Having done this, India became the fourth nation to have done this after Russia, America and the European Space Agency.This is hugely significant because, if ever the Moon's resources are to be divided, India's rightful share can be claimed having achieved what others have not been able to do.

Lets take this for what it is.. the first experiment, which met most of the ambitious goals.

However, hope ISRO learns the value of good PR and be more cautious in setting expectations next time.

Snippet from a previous post. Indian Space and new frontiers

• 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.

Here comes BHUVAN

A significant project was unveiled on Aug 12, 2009 ahead of the Independence day. BHUVAN, the ISRO (NRSC) project provides Google-Earth like satellite views, terrain maps and a lot more. BHUVAN is India-centric and is expected to provide information like mineral/soil detail in future.

This has the potential to spawn off a range of other innovations specific to Indian markets and users. If maintained well and transferred to capable entities in private domain, this could be a watershed event for Indian software industry. Whether GoI has the vision to make it happen is a question we all dread. But for now, savor the sub-continent through ISRO's eyes.

How to get it?

Only the Beta version is currently available. Below are the necessary steps to start using it

1. Register on the portal http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/
2. Make sure DirectX is installed (to download Bhuvan Plug-in) Microsoft Link
3. Login in Bhuvan portal using the ID and password
4. Will prompt you to download a Bhuvan Plug-in, Install the plug-in and relogin.

Anticipate stability issues and slowness.

Here is a snapshot of BHUVAN application

From ISRO's FAQ :

What do I require to run Bhuvan on my Machine?

You require the Bhuvan Plug-in which can be downloaded from the Bhuvan website after registration and you will also need DirectX8 or higher version (www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/) for installing the plug-in. Please note that the Bhuvan Plug-in can be installed with administrative privileges only.

How do I use Bhuvan?

When you first open Bhuvan website, You will land on the index page which gives you information on Bhuvan and this page also allows you to register for using the Bhuvan. Once you successfully register, you will land on the Bhuvan 3D client page. Here, there are three primary areas of the program that you'll be using. The main window shows a globe, and you can navigate around with your mouse or use the Heads-Up Display (HUD) option available on the right top corner. Double right click to zoom in, and double left click to zoom out (or use your mousewheel). Right click, hold, and drag to pan. The second area is at the upper right of the main window. When you move your mouse over the navigation compass, it give you more movement options such as rotate and tilt (which you can also do with your mouse). The third area is to the left of the main window. This frame includes a fly to location and fly to important places option. On the top of the globe are the menu options for layers, 2D and 3D drawing, measurement tools, snapshot tools etc. When you select any of these options, you see the context options on the left plane where you can make appropriate choices that you can turn on to make visible in the main windows such as roads, 3D terrain, and more.

Hafiz Saeed still free

Report from TOI :
Pak court indefinitely adjourns trial against 26/11 mastermind

GoI waits with bated breadth.

• The apex court's direction comes two days after India said there was "enough evidence" to continue investigation against the Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) chief in connection with the 26/11 attacks.

Hafiz still remains free.. Oh.. this time there is a perfectly valid reason : AG resigns. There seems to be a reason all the time.

• Sources said the move was apparently linked to the resignation of Punjab's Advocate General Raza Farooq on Sunday, who was representing the provincial government in the hearings.
  The provincial government sought time from the apex court to appoint a new Advocate General and asked for the hearing to be adjourned, sources said.
• Saeed is a 'free' man according to his lawyer A K Dogar. The case hearing was adjourned immediately on being taken up, according to Dogar. The shocking development comes despite India's submission of an additional dossier with evidence of Hafiz Saeed's involvement in 26/11, which was expected to tighten the state's case against him.
• Speaking to the media after Monday's hearing, Dogar said, "He will continue as free man, he can do whatever he likes. He is doing his duties at the second most important mosque in the country. I tell the whole country, Saeed opened 160 schools from sources of JuD, 52 madrasaas and 4 universities. I am elated to hear recently that a girl from the JuD Girls' High school, topped the list of all the boards."

After ton of literature, there is still no obvious link.

• Asked about the reports of a fourth dossier that India had provided recently, Dogar said, "Rehman Malik (Pakistani interior minister) who now calls all the shots in the country on these security matters - made a positive statement reported on July 28 - saying 'We have no evidence with us that Hafiz or JuD is in any manner connected with Mumbai attacks.'"

We continue to provide dossiers, which will likely be used to plug holes in their strategy.

• India responded to the latest queries from Pakistan on Saturday (August 1) over 26/11 by sending certified copies of Lashkar terrorist Ajmal Kasab’s confession and interrogation reports of LeT operatives Fahim Ansari and Sahabuddin Ahmed as part of a seven-page response. The communication is said to have sufficient evidence - as home minister P Chidambaram said this week - for Pakistan to proceed against the Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

GoI hangs on to a non-existent ray of hope as discussed in Shame at Sharm-el-Shiekh.

Mantra should be : Forget resuming talks. Focus on economy, get manufacturing going and build your fences. Talks can resume after 2017 (when Obama is out)