Contact lost with India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter August 30, 2009
Posted by Emir in Science and Technology, Space.Tags: chandrayaan-1, india, isro, moon, space, spacecraft
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Artist's concept of Chandrayaan-1 in lunar orbit
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has lost contact with its Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter. Chandrayaan-1 was launched in October 2008 as India’s first lunar probe, carrying aboard it eleven (11) scientific instruments from partners in the United States and Europe.
As part of its mission, the probe carried out mapping of the lunar topography in 3D and identification of its chemical characteristics. Data beamed back to Bangalore has provided information on the formation of the moon and the possible presence of water frozen in the lunar regolith. The presence of water has serious implications for a manned presence as it will reduce any outpost’s reliance on raw material from Earth.
Contact was lost on the night of Saturday 29th August 2009. As of yet no reason has been given for the loss of contact, but it may be noted that other problems have been had with the spacecraft before. Any space mission carries with it considerable risk. The important part is that even though its mission may have been cut short, Chandrayaan-1 has been an enormous success.
In 2012, the ISRO intends to launch the Chandrayaan-2 mission which will include both an orbiter and a lunar rover. Both missions will provide invaluable science and should aid NASA’s eventual return to the lunar surface via the Constellation programme circa 2020. Constellation will involve a series of landings at the south pole’s Shackleton Crater culminating in a permanent moon base at that location.
Voyager: Surviving our time July 19, 2009
Posted by Emir in Science and Technology, Space, Thoughts.Tags: carter, golden record, nasa, space, termination shock, voyager
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In 1977 NASA launched the Voyager spacecraft. On concluding their respective missions to the outer planets, the probes were cast off into interstellar space where it will be on the scale of tens and hundreds of thousands of years before either pass even close to another star system.
The probes flew with the Golden Records; discs containing sounds of the Earth, greetings from mankind, the origins of the probes and instructions on how to play the records. In addition, they carried a statement by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The statement read:
“We cast this message into the cosmos… Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some — perhaps many — may have inhabited planets and space faring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: We are trying to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope some day, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of Galactic Civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe.”
When you think about it, this is a truly profound message. The likelihood that these probes would ever be recovered by another civilization is next to nothing. Perhaps by sheer statistics, it could happen one day but how far into the future would that be? What is truly amazing is that these machines will certainly outlive the society that created them.
Today both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are on the periphery of the solar system, passing through the Termination Shock where the influence of the Sun meets the galactic winds of the Milky Way. Long after their power runs out these vessels will still carry that message; a statement to the cosmos that once upon a time, mankind existed on the third planet from Sol.
To the Moon and back again July 19, 2009
Posted by Emir in Science and Technology, Space.Tags: apollo, moon, nasa, orion, shuttle, space
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“The Eagle has landed” – Forty years ago the first human beings touched down on the surface of the Moon. You know; forty years is a lifetime.
No human being has set foot on the Moon since 1972. Since the retirement of Apollo we have not had a manned vehicle capable of making the trip. The Space Shuttle was a marvel of engineering; it is reusable, can carry huge loads into orbit and glide down to a conventional runway landing. The Shuttle retires next year after almost 30 years of service and only two vehicle losses.
Starting in 2015, for the first time in decades a space agency will once again fly a manned, Moon capable spacecraft. NASA returns to the capsule design with Orion and has planned a series of lunar landings with the aim of establishing a manned outpost on the Moon’s south pole. Eventually, the findings of that project are hoped to be put to use in finally landing a man on Mars.
This is great news of course, but it is shameful that t has taken us this long to get back there. In the 1960s pioneers envisioned a permanent human presence on Mars and manned trips to the asteroid belt and Jupiter’s moons. Ideas for advanced autonomous probes exploring neighboring star systems were on the table: see Project Daedalus and Project Longshot.
This is all just NASA. Over the years, the European and Russian space agencies have not fared much better. Only recently has China entered the fray but has only managed to send people into orbit. The visionaries of decades gone by are probably turning in their graves.
The one saving grace of this whole mess is that technology has come a very long way since the Apollo era. We know a great deal more today and in many ways the technologies are far more accessible. A few years ago the first privately funded spacecraft entered suborbital space and soon Virgin Galactic will be flying a fleet of SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplanes to paying customers. Initiatives are under way to encourage private advancements beyond suborbital trips: look up the Bigelow Prize and the Google Lunar X-Prize.
We may yet have a shot at that future of a spacefaring society. There are still the detractors of course; that we should fix all our problems here on Earth before venturing elsewhere. I find the proposition naive. There will always be problems to be fixed, but that has never stopped anyone from exploring and venturing into the unknown. Why should we stop that now? That apart, I wonder if the detractors of space exploration have ever looked up all the advancements in everything from kitchenware to medicine that developed out of the space programme?
The benefits of private enterprise getting involved in space are simple: There will always be an effort to get better for cheaper, it becomes available to the general public, and there are no political detractors for all that matters is that there is a market to sell it to.
