Indian Moon Orbiter Will Send Probe To Lunar Surface

European, Other Instruments On Orbiter Will Study Moon

India launched an unmanned spacecraft headed for the moon, marking a further emergence of the south Asian economic powerhouse as a major spacefaring nation.

Liftoff of the Indian lunar shot came as the United States is preparing to launch another space shuttle mission to low Earth orbit. That will be one of the last 10 shuttle trips before NASA in 2010 will lose the ability to mount manned missions for half a decade, until the future Orion-Ares space system begins crewed flights in 2015. (Please see separate story in this issue.)

The United States has been placed in this position by money-saving White House and congressional decisions made years ago, long before NASA Administrator Mike Griffin took the helm at the agency.

Other countries that recently have launched unmanned missions to the moon such as lunar orbiters include China (the Chang’e I orbiter launched last year), the European Space Agency, or ESA (the SMART-1 orbiter in 2003, plus another craft going to a moon of Saturn) and Japan (the $479 million SELENE, or Selenological and Engineering Explorer, spacecraft produced by the Kaguya project, that launched last year, and an earlier moon mission).

Aside from the joint ESA operations, Germany on its own has announced a $508 million (Euro350 million) unmanned lunar orbiter. While the acronym LEO in the United States stands for low Earth orbit, for Germany LEO will stand for the name of the new craft called the Lunar Exploration Orbiter.

As well, China is aiming for a manned mission to the moon by 2020.

To be sure, NASA also has its own plans for an unmanned mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that will lift off some time next year. NASA, the first and thus far only agency ever to send men to the moon, won’t again send astronauts to the lunar surface until around 2020, if all goes according to schedule. And a mission to Mars won’t occur until the 2030s.

Indian Moon Launch

That Indian spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) in Sriharikota, India, atop a PSLV-C11 rocket.

That lifter is an upgraded version of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

The climb to space took about 20 minutes, where the PSLV-C11 rocket inserted Chandrayaan-1 into a highly elongated orbit around Earth.

This marked the beginning of the Indian space trek to the moon, which will culminate with a major maneuver, the lunar orbit insertion, in less than two weeks.

Once the spacecraft is orbiting the moon, further adjustments will lower its altitude progressively to the final 100 kilometer-high (62.14 miles) circular orbit.

Then Chandrayaan-1 will eject a moon Impact Probe to provide information about the lunar surface. Finally, Chandrayaan-1 will continue to orbit the moon, with remote-sensing studies carried out by its 11 scientific instruments. Three of these instruments were provided by Europe (the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden) through ESA.

This lunar mission continues a lengthy European-Indian collaboration in space.

India and Europe began joint space ventures in 1978, when the first cooperation agreement between ESA and ISRO was signed. In 1981, an Ariane 1 launcher by Arianespace carried first geostationary Indian satellite, Apple. So far, 13 INSAT satellites have flown on European Arianes.

Chandrayaan-1, ISRO’s first mission beyond Earth orbit, marks the beginning of a new era of collaboration between ESA and India in space science.

ESA is making the expertise gained from its SMART-1 lunar mission available for this collaboration. ESA coordinated and supported provision of the three European instruments C1XS, SIR-2 and SARA, (earlier versions of C1XS and SIR-2 flew on SMART-1). Further, for the lunar mission, ESA assisted in areas such as flight dynamics and is supporting data archiving and processing. As a result of the collaboration, ESA and ISRO will share the data from their respective instruments.

"In an era of renewed interest for the moon on a worldwide scale, the ESA-ISRO collaboration on Chandrayaan-1 is a new opportunity for Europe to expand its competence in lunar science while tightening the long-standing relationship with India — an ever stronger space power," said Prof. David Southwood, ESA director of science and robotic exploration. "While the exploration of space calls for new challenges to be overcome, joining forces is becoming more and more a key to future successes."