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Temperature error killed India’s Moon mission

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The saga of India’s ill-fated Moon probe, Chandrayaan-1 continues. We learned in July this year that it took the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) three months to admit some serious instrument failures, and then at the end of August the mission was declared over, when communication with the satellite was lost ten months into a two year mission.

Now, according to the Times of India, the problems with Chandrayaan-1, which was meant to produce a topological and mineralogical map of the Moon, began way before launch. T K Alex, director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, told the TOI “We assumed that the temperature at 100km above the Moon’s surface would be around 75 degrees Celsius. However, it was more than 75 degrees and problems started to surface. We had to raise the orbit to 200km."

So, when in May this year Chandrayaan’s orbit of the Moon was raised from 100 kilometres to 200 kilometres it wasn’t as was explained at the time, to get a better view of the Moon. It was actually to try and cool things down. The temperature problems that arose from not knowing the temperature of the Moon started to cause problems as long ago as November last year, a month after launch.

Chandrayaan-1 must be now seen as a learning experience for ISRO. But a costly experience of $80 million.

Another ISRO official is quoted by the Press Trust of India saying the mission ended because of a bus management problem – a piece of hardware that performs “vital control functions”. This, the official claims could have led to the severing of the radio link between the satellite and Earth.

There is apparently a meeting taking place with scientists involved in the mission to review the performance of the mission (Hindustan Times) and ISRO director S Satish is quoted as being happy with the data that has been collected.

The legacy of this mission is unclear – a second Chandrayaan craft is planned to launch in 2013 and will include a rover to sample lunar rocks and send the data back to an orbiting spacecraft. But surely the failure will have damaged ISRO’s reputation in the eyes of the international space science community. Or not? What do you think?

Image: NASA

Comments

  1. Neil Chaudhary said:

    You ask: But surely the failure will have damaged ISRO’s reputation in the eyes of the international space science community. Or not? What do you think?

    I don’t think anyone is happy when a mission like this goes awry. But if anyone understands the feeling of failure it ought to be the space mission community. This is really tough work where the slightest oversight or miscalculation can result in explosive failure. Unless the mistakes made in this mission were really exceptional cases of negligence (I don’t know enough to say), I think this incident can be interpreted as growing pains for the Indian space program, and not an indelible black mark on its reputation.

    Wonderful web log, by the way. I’m surprised to see so few comments. Please keep up the good work, I will check your site daily.

  2. Paul Henney said:

    Black Mark?

    How many times did the US and USSR fail with missions to the Moon? India had an orbiting spacecraft doing science on its “first” go! Yes the mission has had problems and been terminated earlier than planned but this will provide valuable info for the next msission.

    We seem to forget that we are talking about science and engineering in the depths of space, not down the street! Well done India and better luck next time.

  3. A.B.E. Santosh said:

    Though the failure occurred due to the negligence of ISRO, I do not think it would damage the reputation of ISRO in the eyes of the international space science community. Let ISRO be given one more chance. Also the Columbia mishap did not damage NASA’s reputation as such.

  4. Richard said:

    The published research that come out of the mission will show whether it was a ‘failure’ or not – let’s reserve judgement til then. (Nb wasn’t the move from 100km to 200km orbit partly to do with the orienting sensor fail?)

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  5. Sanjay Mishra said:

    Those who make a living by doing science know mighty well that few experiments succeed in the first go. That is precisely why they are called experiments. So long as ISRO has a mechanism and desire to keep science community and public informed and is willing to learn from its mistakes, there is no reason for remorse. They have accumulated good quality first hand data to improvise on their design and they would definitely do much better job next time. $80 million is peanuts for most ambitious projects. Heck you can barely buy a 737 Jumbo in that much money. Please do not confuse real science with paper airplanes.

  6. wapth said:

    Though the failure occurred due to the negligence of ISRO, I do not think it would damage the reputation of ISRO in the eyes of the international space science community. Let ISRO be given one more chance. How many times did the US and USSR fail with missions to the Moon.

    Let’s try again today failuer is the succes of tomarow

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