The Hindu Business Line : ‘Chandrayaan is fine; sensor hitch sorted out’

Bangalore, July 17 The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday admitted that its lunar craft, Chandrayaan-1, developed an orientation problem on April 26 and nearly lost its bearings four lakh km away in space.

Two onboard star-sensors that guide it by keeping track of stars had failed beyond repair, Mr G.Madhavan Nair, Chairman, said at a news conference here on Friday .

Dispelling worries that the craft was crippled or dying, Mr Nair said the directional hitch had been sorted out and Chandrayaan-1 was working well. The agency is now concerned about the High Energy X-ray Spectrometer, which may be hit by high radiation. HEX is designed to detect water, uranium and thorium – potential energy sources for mankind.

ISRO on May 20 moved the spacecraft a little farther to save the instruments, but did not disclose the problem.

The other ten instruments were functioning well and scientists were happy with the data. “Almost 95 per cent of the scientific objectives has been completed, including the 3D terrain mapping,” he said.

The Rs 386-crore Chandrayaan-1, launched on October 22, 2008, catapulted India to the deep-space club.

“A complex mission like this can encounter unexpected problems,” Mr Nair said. “After the orientation exercise, it has been functioning perfectly normally. Resolution may suffer slightly as the spacecraft was moved farther; but it is acceptable to scientists.”

Since the sensors’ collapse, the spacecraft has been orbiting the Moon with the help of gyroscopes, which are alternative stabilising means, direction finders, and also with small nudges every two days from the mission control centre at Bangalore. It was “difficult to say how long the spacecraft can survive on them,” he said.

An ISRO release said Chandrayaan has circled Moon 3,000 times and sent over 70,000 images of lunar mountains and craters. “Other than the failure of the star sensor and a bus management unit, the health of the spacecraft is normal. The scientists are extremely happy with the data and quality. The results of their analysis should be known in about 6-12 months,” it said.

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Chandrayaan-1 reaches lunar slot

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