ISRO and Space News Discussions 2019

[Muns]

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[Muns]

August 20, 2019

Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019). The duration of maneuver was 1738 seconds beginning from 0902 hrs IST. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 114 km x 18072 km.
Following this, a series of orbit maneuvers will be performed on Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft to enable it to enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon’s surface.
Subsequently, the lander will separate from the Orbiter and enters into a 100 km X 30 km orbit around the Moon. Then, it will perform a series of complex braking maneuvers to soft land in the South polar region of the Moon on September 7, 2019.
The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near Bengaluru. All the systems of Chandrayaan-2 are healthy.
The next Lunar bound orbit maneuver is scheduled tomorrow (August 21, 2019) between 1230-13:30 hrs IST.

https://www.isro.gov.in/chandrayaan2-latest-updates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZX0-j5 ... e=youtu.be

[Muns]

Press Meet - Briefing by Dr. K Sivan, Chairman, ISRO

https://www.isro.gov.in/update/20-aug-2 ... irman-isro

A Press Meet was organised today (August 20, 2019) at ISRO Headquarters, Bengaluru on the occasion of Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) of Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft. Dr K Sivan, Chairman, ISRO addressed and interacted with several regional, national and international media persons during the meet. The live telecast of this meet was made available on ISRO website and You tube Channel.

In his briefing, Dr. Sivan announced that “The LOI maneuver was performed successfully today morning using the onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of about 29 minutes. This maneuver precisely injected Chandrayaan-2 into an orbit around the Moon.” He emphasised the unique requirement of 90 degree orbital inclination of Chandrayaan-2 and said that it was achieved by the precise execution of both the Trans Lunar Injection (performed on August 14, 2019) and today’s LOI maneuver.

“The satellite is currently located in a lunar orbit with a distance of about 114 km at perilune (nearest point to the Moon) and 18,072 km at apolune (farthest point to the Moon)”, he added.

Further, Dr Sivan added that till September 01, 2019, a series of four orbit maneuvers will be performed on Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft to enable it to enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon’s surface.

Subsequently, on September 02, 2019 the Vikram lander will separate from the Orbiter. Following this, orbit maneuvers will be performed on Vikram to place it in a 100 km X 30 km orbit around the Moon. Following this, Vikram will perform a series of complex braking maneuvers to soft land in the South polar region of the Moon between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N on September 7, 2019. A few hours later, the Rover Pragyaan will roll down from Vikram and will perform in situ exploration of the surrounding lunar surface.

The briefing by Chairman, ISRO was followed by a long interactive session with the media during which questions were asked about the scientific objectives of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, challenges and complexities involved during Vikram separation from Orbiter and its soft landing on the Moon, impact of lunar dust on landing and the release of images captured by Chandrayaan-2, mission life of Pragyaan. Chairman, ISRO answered these questions in detail.

[Muns]

August 21, 2019

Second Lunar bound orbit maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (August 21, 2019) beginning at 1250 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of the maneuver was 1228 seconds. The orbit achieved is 118 km x 4412 km.
All spacecraft parameters are normal.
The next Lunar bound orbit maneuver is scheduled on August 28, 2019 between 0530 - 0630 hrs IST.

The above is taken from the I SRO website.

[Muns]

Latest photo update.

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[Muns]

Some fascinating images again from the ISRO site. Some incredible detail with regard to the North Pole as well as the crators. It almost seems like you can feel the hidden water in those deep crators. Only a matter of time before Pragyaan starts running across its surface as well as sampling some of that lunar soil. Truly another achievement and feather in the cap for ISRO. Looks like the next step is the land or separation which should be happening on September 3 before the 15 minutes of on September 7 where the actual landing will take place.



More amazing images available at the link below ;

https://www.isro.gov.in/chandrayaan2-latest-updates

[Muns]

From the ISRO website.

August 28, 2019

Third Lunar Orbit Maneuver
Third Lunar bound orbit maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (August 28, 2019) beginning at 0904 hrs IST, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of the maneuver was 1190 seconds. The orbit achieved is 179 km x 1412 km.
All spacecraft parameters are normal.
The next Lunar bound orbit maneuver is scheduled on August 30, 2019 between 1800 - 1900 hrs IST.

[Muns]

5th and final orbital lunar maneuver occurred today. Another reporting day with separation it seems of Vikram lander from Chandrayaan 2..... Barely another week before vikram touches down on the lunar service.

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[Muns]

September 4, 2019

The second de-orbiting maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (September 04, 2019) beginning at 0342 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of the maneuver was 9 seconds.

The orbit of Vikram Lander is 35 km x 101 km. Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter continues to orbit the Moon in an orbit of 96 km x 125 km and both the Orbiter and Lander are healthy.

With this maneuver the required orbit for the Vikram Lander to commence it descent towards the surface of the Moon is achieved. The Lander is scheduled to powered descent between 0100 - 0200 hrs IST on September 07, 2019, which is then followed by touch down of Lander between 0130 - 0230 hrs IST

https://www.isro.gov.in/chandrayaan2-latest-updates

[Muns]

Huge day-to-day. Can't believe that it's finally here. Modi will be at ISTRAC in Bangalore watching the touchdown happen real-time. We should probably declare this a national holiday!. In any case sad to say that I'll be at work but having to quickly check what's going on throughout the whole day. I hope both Vikram and Pragyaan make their momentous footprints and plant our Indian flag on the moon.
Chandrayaan 1 was the first to discover water at the South Pole.
Chandrayaan 2 will be the first to quantify how much water they actually is and serve as the possible first area of for human habitation on the moon.

Good luck to the ISRO team and hoping we can post here in a few hours congratulations as well.

PM will witness Chandrayan-2’s final descent to Lunar land from ISRO’s control room

https://www.india-aware.com/latest/pm-w ... trol-room/

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be at the ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru on Saturday to watch the final descent of Chandrayaan-2 on the Moon’s surface.

Officials said Modi will witness the final descent of Chandrayaan-2 on the lunar south pole from Satellite Control Centre (SCC), ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC). He will also interact with the winners of the ‘space quiz’, which was conducted for students between classes 8 and 10 to coincide with the event.

Officials said Modi’s visit to ISRO will boost the morale of its space scientists and inspire the youngsters to develop an innovative mind and inquiring spirit.

Modi said the Chandrayaan-2 mission was “Indian at heart, Indian in spirit! What would make every Indian overjoyed is the fact that it is a fully indigenous mission”.

ISRO in a statement said: “The lander Vikram is scheduled to powered descent between 01:00 to 02:00 hrs IST on September 07, 2019, which is then followed by touch down of Lander between 01:30 to 02:30 hrs IST.”

[Muns]

Descent has started!!!

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[Muns]

Fine Braking Phase!!

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[Muns]

Communication with lander lost at 2.1km....

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[Muns]

Some heartbreaking scenes all around today. K Sivan always was and continues to be my hero. India’s real rocket man for as much as he contributed to both PSLV and GSLV. It was always going to be a long shot but we have gotten so used to seeing successes as well as that following that plot graph always following the curve that even I was surprised when it started to deviate.

Shortly after that it seems that we lost contact with Vikram the Lander. Feels like we have all lost a member of our family. However, I have no doubt that we will be able to understand what happened and go on from there. Still many missions to come and of course they always have the full support of Modi who himself is minister of space and a complete space buff . His farewell and emotional hug to Sivan shows how much of a bond they have together. It was good to see him lift up spirits when everybody felt dejected.

However, Chandrayaan 2 the orbiter still remains. It will continue to closely track and monitor the moon surface including its continued search for water over the South Pole. Hopefully we should see another ISRO Chandrayaan 2R in the months ahead.


I am with you. Our determination to get closer to Moon got stronger: Modi to ISRO scientists

https://www.india-aware.com/latest/i-am ... cientists/

[Primus]

What an emotional roller coaster it was. Got to admit would have been perfect had it worked all the way, but at least we met 85-90% of the objectives. I believe the lander has been found, likely it is severely damaged though.

Very proud of ISRO and the team.

[Muns]

It really has been a roller coaster. Enough for I guess everybody’s emotions to have run dry. However so much to take away from almost making a textbook landing. We were possibly so use to seeing any spacecraft follow the trajectory that it seemed that this would just be the same case again. However, the complexity of the mission especially doing orbiter, lander and rover all-in-one was extremely complex and challenging to say the least.

It’s now with baited breath we hold to see what lies ahead. From what twitter users seems to report, Vikram landed approximately 500 m from the actual landing site. The computer may have thought that this was the most likely favorable site. However, Vikram was coming in quite fast during the final stages and most likely crash landed. Some online reports especially on twitter state that Vikram is seen to be on its side. Still relatively intact meaning that it came in hard but not enough to break the spacecraft.

Hopefully it means that some basic form of communication might be available. If not still hugely impressive feat especially with the orbiter picking up exactly where Vikram is within a matter of hours.

[Muns]

Upsetting scene by Pallav Bagla, asking why a junior scientist who was sent to brief the media after Vikram got lost and instead demanding that K Sivan himself come to explain the details. Only NDTV can be responsible for something like this. Pity, I actually did like the guy on previous, commentaries that he made. I'm now also reading that he takes personal pictures of ISRO scientists and then sells them for his own personal profit on Getty images.

As ISRO loses contact with Vikram Lander, NDTV journalist arrogantly yells at scientist

https://www.opindia.com/2019/09/as-isro ... scientist/

[Muns]

We really need more of Indians such as K.Sivan. Just really a great person all around and I'm not sure if I said before, but coming from such a humble background. He used to sell mangoes to help them get through University. Really from a poor farming community but really one of our next generation rocket men...

‘First of all, I am an Indian’: ISRO chief Sivan wins hearts with his reply

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-ne ... rZi2M.html

“First of all, I am an Indian.” With this reply, the chairperson of the Indian Space Research Organisation Dr Kailasavadivoo Sivan won millions of hearts. The interviewer from Sun TV had asked him as a Tamilian, having attained such a big position, what he had to say to people from Tamil Nadu.
“I joined ISRO as an Indian. ISRO is a place where people from all regions and languages work and contribute. But I am grateful to my brothers who celebrate me,” he said.