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Post by swamprat on Sept 1, 2019 23:20:55 GMT
At the Moon, India's Chandrayaan-2 Spacecraft Poised to Release Lunar Lander
By Leonard David 8 hours ago Spaceflight
The probe has reached its final orbit around the moon
India's Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft at the moon successfully completed its fifth and final lunar orbit maneuver today (Sept. 1), setting the stage for the release of the country's first lunar lander.
The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft performed a 52-second maneuver at 8:51 a.m. EDT (1821 IST/1251 GMT), refining its orbit to a path that ranges from 74 to 79 miles (119-127 kilometers) above the lunar surface.
"All spacecraft parameters are normal," the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said in an update.
Vikram lander separation
The next operation is the separation of the Vikram lander from the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. That event is scheduled for Monday (Sept. 2) sometime between 3:15-4:15 a.m. EDT (0715-0815 GMT). It will be 12:45 p.m. India Standard Time when the separation occurs.
Following separation, Vikram will perform two deorbit maneuvers to prepare for its landing in the south polar region of the moon.
According to the ISRO, the tentative plan for future operations after today's maneuver Chandrayaan-2 is as follows.
• Vikram Separation: Monday, Sept. 2
3:15-4:45 a.m. EDT (0715-0815 GMT), 12:45 – 13:45 IST
• Deorbit 1: Monday, Sept. 2
11:30 p.m. EDT (0330 Sept. 3 GMT), 09:00 – 10:00 Tuesday, Sept. 3 IST.
Orbit target: 109 x 120 kilometers
• Deorbit 2: Tuesday, Sept. 3
5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT), 03:00 – 04:00, Wednesday, Sept. 4 IST.
Orbit target: 36 x 110 kilometers
• Powered Descent: Friday, Sept. 6 (Sept. 7 IST)
• Vikram Touchdown: Friday, Sept. 6
4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT), 01:30 – 02:30 Saturday, Sept. 6 IST
The Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-2 is named after Vikram A. Sarabhai, often called the father of the Indian space program. It is designed to function for one lunar day, which is equivalent to about 14 Earth days.
India's Chandrayaan-2 mission launched to the moon on July 22 and is the second lunar mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation after its successful Chandrayaan-2 flight. It consists of an orbiter, the Vikram lander and the small Pragyan lunar rover, which is packed aboard Vikram and will be deployed once the lander touches down on the moon.
www.space.com/india-chandrayaan-2-reaches-final-moon-orbit.html
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Post by swamprat on Sept 2, 2019 13:53:16 GMT
The two halves of India's moon mission have parted ways in preparation for the tensest moment of the entire endeavor.
Today (Sept. 2), the Chandrayaan-2 mission split into two separate spacecraft: an orbiter that will circle the moon's poles for about a year and a lander that will, later this week, attempt India's first touchdown on the moon.
"All the systems of Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter and Lander are healthy," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials said in a statement.
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Post by swamprat on Sept 6, 2019 13:36:53 GMT
India to Attempt Moon Landing at the Lunar South Pole Today, 9/6. How to Watch Live
By SPACE.com Staff 3 hours ago Spaceflight
The moon landing is set for between 4 and 5 p.m. EDT (2000-2100 GMT).
India is about to land where no one has before on the moon, and you can watch it all online.
The Chandrayaan-2 lunar lander Vikram, built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is scheduled to land amid the craters of the moon's south pole today (Sept. 6). Touchdown is scheduled for sometime between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. EDT (2000-2100 GMT, 1:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Sept. 7 IST). ISRO will live stream the landing in a webcast beginning at 3:40 p.m. EDT (1940 GMT, 1:10 a.m. IST).
You can watch the Indian moon landing webcast here: www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html
and on Space.com's homepage, as well as directly from the ISRO webcast here:
www.isro.gov.in/gslv-mk-iii-m1-chandrayaan-2-mission/watch-live-landing-of-vikram-lander-moon-sep-07-2019-0110-hrs
The target landing site for India's Chandrayaan-2 mission to explore the lunar south pole. (Image credit: Indian Space Research Organisation)
Chandrayaan-2 is the second to the moon by India, following on the heels of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, but this latest project is tackling lunar exploration in more extensive fashion.Whereas Chandrayaan-1, which explored the moon from 2008 to 2009, was just an orbiter, Chandrayaan-2 has an orbiter, lander and the small rover Pragyan.
The purpose of Chandrayaan-2 is to study the mysterious moon from top to bottom, including its topography, mineralogy, exosphere, elemental abundance and even possible seismic activity. With seven instruments aboard the orbiter, three aboard the lander and a further two attached to the rover, there will be no stone left unturned.
India launched the Chandrayaan-2 mission on July 22 atop a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The mission entered orbit just under a month later, with the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter placed into orbit 62 (100 meters) above the lunar surface.
Once settled, the orbiter’s cameras, spectrometers and radars will get to work in finding the elusive lunar water ice and hydroxyl (molecules containing the oxygen and hydrogen bond) signatures. The Vikram lander, which also contains the Pragyan rover, disengaged from the orbiter on Monday (Sept. 2) to prepare for today's landing.
The Vikram lander has a unique science payload. It contains a thermophysical experiment to measure the surface’s thermal properties, an instrument designed to study the surface’s ionosphere and atmosphere, and lastly a seismic activity instrument, which will allow scientists to delve deeper into the moon than any other instrument before. About four hours after Vikram's (hopefully) successful landing, the Pragyan rover will be deployed from the lander, releasing the mini-tank of scientific adventure onto the lunar surface.
India's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover are designed to last one lunar day (14 Earth days), though Chandrayaan-2 is expected to spend a full year studying the moon from above. The Chandrayaan-2 mission has a full cost of about 10 billion rupees (about $145 million), ISRO officials have said.'
www.space.com/india-chandrayaan-2-moon-landing-webcast.html
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Post by swamprat on Sept 7, 2019 0:01:54 GMT
Lost contact during descent! 
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Post by swamprat on Sept 7, 2019 13:50:50 GMT
India's Moon Mission Continues Despite Apparent Lander Crash
By Mike Wall 2 hours ago Science & Astronomy
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is still going strong.
India's historic lunar-landing bid may have come up short, but the nation still has important work to do at the moon.
India's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter attempted to drop a lander named Vikram near the lunar south pole yesterday afternoon (Sept. 6), but mission controllers lost contact with the descending craft when it was just 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometers) above the gray dirt.
As of early Saturday morning (Sept. 7), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) still had not officially declared Vikram dead. But comments by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi leave little room for optimism.
"We came very close, but we will need to cover more ground in the times to come," Modi said during an address to the nation that was webcast live Friday night (Saturday morning India time). "As important as the final result is the journey and the effort. I can proudly say that the effort was worth it, and so was the journey."
But Chandrayaan-2's journey isn't over yet, because the orbiter is still going strong. In fact, its yearlong moon mission has barely begun; the spacecraft slipped into lunar orbit just last month.
Since then, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter has been studying Earth's natural satellite with eight different science instruments, from an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers). The probe's data should eventually allow researchers to compile detailed maps of the lunar surface, revealing key insights about the moon's elemental composition, formation and evolution, ISRO officials have said.
Some of these maps will attempt to assess the moon's stores of water ice. A decade ago, Chandrayaan-2's predecessor, the orbiter Chandrayaan-1, showed that water is widespread across the lunar surface, especially at the poles. (A NASA instrument aboard Chandrayaan-1 called the Moon Mineralogy Mapper made the key observations for this discovery.)
Subsequent work has suggested that much of this water is ice on the floors of polar craters, which have been in permanent shadow for billions of years. If this ice is easily accessible, it could be a critical enabling resource for the eventual human settlement of the moon.
That's the main reason lunar-exploration advocates have homed in on the south polar region, which appears to harbor considerably more water ice than the north. Indeed, NASA intends to send resource-scouting instruments to the south pole aboard commercial landers in the next few years and to land two astronauts there by 2024.
These NASA activities are part of a program called Artemis, which aims to establish a sustainable, long-term presence on and around the moon by 2028. The skills and lessons learned in making this happen will enable the agency to make the crewed leap to Mars in the 2030s, NASA officials say.
Chandrayaan-2's surface work would have contributed some useful information to Artemis' planners, and anyone else interested in knowing more about lunar water. Vikram was supposed to deploy a rover named Pragyan, which would have mapped out the elemental composition of the landing site, potentially providing up-close information about ice in the area.
Vikram's apparent lunar crash is the second in less than five months. The Beresheet lander, which was operated by the Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL and its partner Israel Aerospace Industries, failed during its touchdown attempt on April 11, slamming hard into the lunar surface.
Only three nations have succeeded in landing a probe softly on the moon to date: the Soviet Union, the United States and China.
www.space.com/india-moon-mission-not-over-chandrayaan-2.html
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Post by HAL on Sept 7, 2019 22:07:22 GMT
Artemis being Goddess of the hunt, And the daughter of Zeus.
Also know, I believe, to the Romans as Diana.
I wonder why they chose that name ?
Maybe if the Indian lander didn't fail catastrophically they will be able to revive it.
HAL.
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Post by swamprat on Sept 8, 2019 14:08:12 GMT
India Just Found Its Lost Vikram Lander on the Moon, Still No Signal
By Tariq Malik | 30 minutes ago | Science & Astronomy
Communications attempts are underway.
India's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter circling the moon has spotted the country's lost Vikram lander on the lunar surface, but there is still no signal from the lander, according to Indian media reports.
K Sivan, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said today (Sept. 8) that the Vikram lander was located by Chandrayaan-2 and efforts to restore contact the probe will continue for at least 14 days, according to a Times of India report.
"We have found the location of Lander Vikram on [the] lunar surface and Orbiter has clicked a thermal image of Lander," Sivan told the ANI news service in an interview, adding that attempts to communicate with the lander are ongoing.
The Vikram lander went silent Friday (Sept. 6) while attempting a first-ever landing near the moon's south pole. ISRO lost contact with Vikram when the lander was just 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) above the lunar surface, raising fears that it may have crashed on the moon. The Vikram lander is India's first moon lander, and is carrying the country's first lunar rover, called Pragyan.
ISRO officials have not yet released the Chandrayaan-2 image of Vikram on the lunar surface or described the potential condition of the lander. But they have said that despite the lander's presumed failed moon landing, the craft has already demonstrated key technologies for future missions.
"The Vikram Lander followed the planned descent trajectory from its orbit of 35 km (22 miles) to just below 2 km above the surface," ISRO officials wrote in an update Saturday (Sept. 7). "All the systems and sensors of the Lander functioned excellently until this point and proved many new technologies such as variable thrust propulsion technology used in the Lander."
As ISRO tries to regain contact with the Vikram moon lander, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft is doing well in lunar orbit, the space agency said. In fact, the orbiter could last well beyond its planned one-year mission.
"The Orbiter camera is the highest resolution camera (0.3m) in any lunar mission so far and shall provide high resolution images which will be immensely useful to the global scientific community," ISRO officials said in the Sept. 7 statement. "The precise launch and mission management has ensured a long life of almost 7 years instead of the planned one year."
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is equipped with eight different science instruments to study the moon from above. Those instruments include: a high resolution camera, a lunar terrain mapping camera; a solar X-ray monitor; an imaging infrared spectrometer; a dual frequency synthetic aperture radar for studying moon water ice and lunar mapping; a sensor to study the moon's thin exosphere; and a dual frequency radio science experiment to study the moon's ionosphere.
Chandrayaan-2 is India's second mission to the moon after the Chandrayaan-1 mission of 2008 and 2009. An instrument on that first mission discovered the spectral signature for water across wide swaths of the moon, with big concentrations at the lunar poles, where permanently shadowed craters allow water ice to stay frozen.
The Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter aims to pick up where its predecessor left off.
"This was a unique mission which aimed at studying not just one area of the Moon but all the areas combining the exosphere, the surface as well as the sub-surface of the moon in a single mission," ISRO officials said in the update. "The Orbiter has already been placed in its intended orbit around the Moon and shall enrich our understanding of the moon’s evolution and mapping of the minerals and water molecules in the Polar Regions, using its eight state-of-the-art scientific instruments."
www.space.com/india-moon-lander-found-by-chandrayaan-2-orbiter.html
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2019 14:45:07 GMT
teach them to use those cheep parts made in china
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