 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
. |
Heat And Radiation Crippled India's Maiden Moon Mission
Bangalore, India (PTI) Sep 09, 2009 Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Madhavan Nair has said that heat alone was not the culprit as India's maiden moon mission was called off much before its scheduled lifecycle recently. A combination of factors including radiation, caused calling off of the mission. As experts from across the country and abroad began a review of the mission here on Monday, Nair said, "We have designed spacecraft in such a way that cooling sufficiently takes place and it was brought well within an acceptable range of about 40 degrees. But you know one aspect is that failure rate of devices increases when the temperature goes up. That component, with the particle radiation, it can make things worse. So the combination of these two factors only has made this, I can say, the premature termination of the mission." "There is nothing like mistake, it is a process of learning. When we go to unknown territories we come across newer features; that feature has to be absorbed in our future plan," he added. ISRO had on August 30 formally called off Chandrayaan-1, India's first moon mission, after it lost contact with the craft a day earlier. The 79-million dollars mission was launched amid national euphoria last October, putting India in the Asian space race alongside rival China, reinforcing its claim to be considered a global power. A probe vehicle landed on the moon a month later and sent back images of the lunar surface. But a critical sensor in the main craft, orbiting the moon, malfunctioned in July, raising fears that the two-year mission might have to be curtailed. The Chandrayaan-1 was launched on October 22, by PSLV-C11 and it has put India in an elite lunar club of which Russia, the USA, Japan, China and European Space Agency are the members. One of the mission's main aims was to look for Helium 3, an isotope which is very rare on earth but could be an energy source in the future in nuclear fusion. ISRO has plans to send a manned mission to space in four years' time and eventually on to Mars.
Source: Press Trust of India Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links ISRO Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
NASA Steps Closer To Power Option For Moon HabitatGreenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 09, 2009 NASA has made a series of critical strides toward the development of new nuclear reactors the size of a trash can that could power a human outpost on the moon or Mars. Three recent tests at different NASA centers and a national lab have successfully demonstrated key technologies required for compact fission-based nuclear power plants for human settlements on other worlds. NASA's Mars ... read more |
. |
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook