TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai: India’s maiden moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled to take off from Sriharikota at 6.20 am on October 22, Isro officials said on Monday.
“We are definitely targeting October 22. But if the weather becomes unfavourable, we will postpone the launch to October 23. The window of opportunity will remain open till October 26.We are keeping our fingers crossed and praying that the weather gods will be on our side on October 22,” an official said.
Isro experts had recently told TOI that while rain wouldn’t be an impediment to the launch, the mission cannot take off amid thunder, lightning and cyclonic conditions as these could damage the electronic circuit of the rocket and the spacecraft.
The moon-bound spacecraft with the 11 scientific instruments—six from abroad and five of India—was moved from the Isro Satellite Centre in Bangalore to the Sriharikota launch centre on October 3 where it is undergoing some more prelaunch tests at present. Once these are completed, the process of integrating the spacecraft with the fourth stage of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will be initiated.
Officials said all the four stages of the rocket have been completed. A regular PSLV has six strap-on motors attached to the first stage of the rocket that use nine tonnes of solid propellants. But, in the case of the rocket which will carry Chandrayaan to the moon, the length of the strap-ons has been extended from 10 metres to 13.5 metres and each will use 12 tonnes of propellants. It is for this reason that this particular PSLV for the moon mission has been designated as PSLV-XL.
Soon after launch, the first three stages of the PSLV will separate one after another and the fourth stage will inject the spacecraft into the geo stationary transfer orbit roughly at an altitude of 30,000 km above the equator. Generally, this happens about 20 minuntes after liftoff.
Here, after executing a few manouvres, the spacecraft will move to the lunar transfer trajectory which is the main highway to the moon. Closer to the moon, on a command from the ground station at Bangalore, a critical exercise known as the lunar orbit insertion will be carried out.
“This will be a nail biting moment because the firing of the commands for the loi has to be absolutely precise. Even a slight deviation can botch the mission,’’ said an Isro official.
Then gradually, the altitude of the spacecraft will be lowered to 100 kms above the lunar surface and will fly around the moon using the polar route (north-south direction) every 117 minutes for two years picking up scientific data.
A few days later, again on a command from the ground, the 29-kg Moon Impact Probe, one of the Indian payloads, will be released and it will crashland on the lunar surface at a hypersonic velocity. The flying time from the main spacecraft to the moon is expected to be 17 minutes.
Mumbai: India’s maiden moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled to take off from Sriharikota at 6.20 am on October 22, Isro officials said on Monday.
“We are definitely targeting October 22. But if the weather becomes unfavourable, we will postpone the launch to October 23. The window of opportunity will remain open till October 26.We are keeping our fingers crossed and praying that the weather gods will be on our side on October 22,” an official said.
Isro experts had recently told TOI that while rain wouldn’t be an impediment to the launch, the mission cannot take off amid thunder, lightning and cyclonic conditions as these could damage the electronic circuit of the rocket and the spacecraft.
The moon-bound spacecraft with the 11 scientific instruments—six from abroad and five of India—was moved from the Isro Satellite Centre in Bangalore to the Sriharikota launch centre on October 3 where it is undergoing some more prelaunch tests at present. Once these are completed, the process of integrating the spacecraft with the fourth stage of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will be initiated.
Officials said all the four stages of the rocket have been completed. A regular PSLV has six strap-on motors attached to the first stage of the rocket that use nine tonnes of solid propellants. But, in the case of the rocket which will carry Chandrayaan to the moon, the length of the strap-ons has been extended from 10 metres to 13.5 metres and each will use 12 tonnes of propellants. It is for this reason that this particular PSLV for the moon mission has been designated as PSLV-XL.
Soon after launch, the first three stages of the PSLV will separate one after another and the fourth stage will inject the spacecraft into the geo stationary transfer orbit roughly at an altitude of 30,000 km above the equator. Generally, this happens about 20 minuntes after liftoff.
Here, after executing a few manouvres, the spacecraft will move to the lunar transfer trajectory which is the main highway to the moon. Closer to the moon, on a command from the ground station at Bangalore, a critical exercise known as the lunar orbit insertion will be carried out.
“This will be a nail biting moment because the firing of the commands for the loi has to be absolutely precise. Even a slight deviation can botch the mission,’’ said an Isro official.
Then gradually, the altitude of the spacecraft will be lowered to 100 kms above the lunar surface and will fly around the moon using the polar route (north-south direction) every 117 minutes for two years picking up scientific data.
A few days later, again on a command from the ground, the 29-kg Moon Impact Probe, one of the Indian payloads, will be released and it will crashland on the lunar surface at a hypersonic velocity. The flying time from the main spacecraft to the moon is expected to be 17 minutes.
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