Where is Chandrayaan now

Where is chandrayaan now…

It’s in the fourth orbit raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft today (October 29, 2008). Chandrayaan-1 entered into a more elliptical orbit whose apogee (farthest point to Earth) lies at 267,000 km while the perigee (nearest point to Earth) lies at 465 km.Now Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft is more than half the way to moon. In this orbit, the spacecraft might take six days to go round the Earth once. And there is one more orbit raising manoeuvre is scheduled to send the spacecraft to the vicinity of the moon at a distance of about 384,000 km from the Earth.

Let’s hope for the best :)

Came to know that there is one more main part of Chandrayaan’s mission, its to explore helium-3 resources from moon. It seems moon has abundant resources of helium-3 from earlier studies; which could be used in Fusion reactors to produce power. Following is an animation to explain how the fusion occurs in DT helium reactor. One atom of deuterium and one atom of tritium combine to form a helium-4 atom and a neutron. Most of the energy released is in the form of the high-energy neutron.

Fusion of Deuterium with Tritium creating helium-4, freeing a neutron, and releasing 3.5 MeV of energy.

Update on 31st August 2009: Couple of days before ISRO lost contact with Chandrayaan. which is not a Good news but scientists say Chandrayaan has made almost 95% of its work so far... This sounds good & let wish all the best for the future endeavours of ISRO.

CNN NEWS

Regards

Fauzi ~ 4z

Chandrayaan mission count down

Mission Objectives:

* To launch and orbit a spacecraft in lunar polar orbit and conduct scientific studies.
* To carry out high resolution mapping of topographic features in 3D, distribution of various minerals and elemental chemical species including radioactive nuclides covering the entire lunar surface using a set of remote sensing payloads. The new set of data would help in unraveling mysteries about the origin and evolution of solar system in general and that of the moon in particular or on its composition and mineralogy.
* Realize the mission goal of harnessing the science payloads, lunar craft and the launch vehicle with suitable ground support system including DSN station, integration and testing, launching and achieving lunar orbit of ~100 km, in-orbit operation of experiments, communication/telecommand, telemetry data reception, quick look data and archival for scientific utilization by identified group of scientists.