Chandrayaan - indian mission to moon

The 52-hour countdown for Chandrayaan-1 - India's first unmanned moon mission – has began at Sriharikota spaceport early on Monday for Wednesday's historic launch.

The integrated launch vehicle has already been moved into the second launch pad (umbilical tower) and launch rehearsals are underway, sources in India Space Research Organisation at Bangalore said.

"All the preparatory work is going as usual and the formal countdown would begin tomorrow morning about 0400 hrs," Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) Associate Director Dr M Y S Prasad told PTI at Chennai.

"All the work including the checking of payloads went satisfactorily. The spacecraft launch would take place as per the schedule," he said.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buoyed by its success in placing eight nanosatellites in prescribed orbits, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is hoping to stage another feat by launching 100 nano-sats at one go. Scientists at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, are preparing elaborate drawings to make this event happen some two years from now.


The ISRO has already intimated universities world wide about the project and has extended an open invite to any varsity to take part in the historic venture. Within the country, the IITs in Kanpur and Mumbai were among the first to express interest along with ISRO’s Indian Institute of Space Science at Thiruvananthapuram. The Madurai Kamaraj University is already in the process of fabricating its satellite.

Chandrayaan update is that it might launch in Mid October.

The BrahMos Aerospace unit here has signed an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for taking up engineering and integration work of rockets and other space tech-related infrastructure for future ISRO missions. According the MoU which is worth Rs 25 crore, BrahMos Aerospace will be doing the complete engineering and integration of ISRO’s workhorse PSLV - an advanced version to be used for the Chandrayaan I mission - and the GSLV.



Also the development of the Vikas engine - ISRO’s indigenous cryogenic stage ground-tested at the LPSC, Mahendragiri - will be undertaken by BrahMos.

What do GSLV and PSLV has common apart from being from ISRO?

PSLV will carry chandrayaan-1 and GSLv will carry none. But that's the difference, i asked what is common between GSLV and PSLV?

Its vikas engine!!! The Vikas engine, based on the French Viking engine developed for Europe's Ariane launcher, is used in the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) as well as the GSLV.

The ISRO has farmed out the manufacture of the engine to three Indian companies: Machine Tools Aids & Reconditioning of Hyderabad, Godrej and Kerala Hitech Industries Limited (Keltec) based in Thiruvananthapuram. The final assembly of the engines and the stages is, however, carried out by the ISRO. The PSLV requires only one Vikas engine (for its second stage). The GSLV, on the other hand, needs five such engines: one for each of the four strap-ons and one for the second stage. The second stage employs indigenously manufactured Vikas engine and carries 40 tonne of liquid propellant — Unsymmetrical Di-Methyl Hydrazine (UDMH) as fuel and Nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4) as oxidizer.

It generates a maximum thrust of about 724 kN!!!

The PSLV's recent launch of 10 satellites into precise orbit has boosted the confidence of the space community and elevated the status of India among space-faring nations, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair said on 30th May 2008.

Source : The hindu

This is the second update on the chandrayaan game. Whatever little time i had i did few fixes that i noticed. The changes include the inclusion of visible dust, then there is an animation when the dust is cleared.

The game is still not complete and is in beta stage. Play the new game and do send in your comments...

Basically the aim of the game is simple.

ISRO is about to launch chandrayaan but they are worried about the space dust and debris out there. So you, the NASA astronaut, come to help. You have 10 seconds to clear those debris before chandrayaan is launched. So get cracking. Move your mouse to navigate the astronaut!!

Good luck and hope you like the small game.




I know the game is not perfect, but since this game is done in my spare time, that is 15 or 20 minutes that i get everyday i hope to see some bugs. Please do send in your suggestions and comments.

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From SLV to chandrayaan - follow the story of indian space program

Chandrayaan-1 launch is by the end of this year, but still its rath, the launch vehicle that will be carrying it, is making news.

PSLV has recently made a world record of putting 10 satellites at one go. Watch PSLV's record in this video.



Hope you enjoyed it.

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Watch the videos of chandrayaan-1
How chandrayaan-1 looks like
Who is actually taking chandrayaan-1 to moon?
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With ISRO successfully placing 10 satellites into their orbits simultaneously using the PSLV-C9 last week, according to analysts, this has put it several notches ahead of even countries like Russia. Indeed, while speaking to the media after the launch, ISRO's chairman G Madhavan Nair who doubles up as the secretary of the Department of Space (DoS), said as much. This record mission now puts ISRO's commercial arm, the Rs 600-crore Antrix Corporation, in a better position to capture part of the $4bn global satellite launch business since ISRO launch costs are a lot lower than those of its competitors.

Nair, who took over as chairman in September 2003, however, is not sitting on his laurels. In another few months, he plans to kick off the Chandrayaan mission, India's unmanned lunar mission. The idea is to, over a two-year period, survey the moon's surface to provide a complete map of its chemical characteristics.

Read more here

Related links
Watch the videos of chandrayaan-1
How chandrayaan-1 looks like
Who is actually taking chandrayaan-1 to moon?
From SLV to chandrayaan - follow the story of indian space program

Indian space scientists are aiming to launch their ambitious Moon-mission Chandrayaan-I in the third quarter of this year. It will launch a 500 kg satellite that will orbit Earth's only natural satellite for two years for terrain mapping and lunar surface mapping.

Read more

Watch PSLV, the launch vehicle that will send chandrayaan-1 to moon, make history by launching 10 satelites here

Setting a world record, India's Polar rocket on 28th april, successfully placed ten satellites, including the country's remote sensing satellite, into orbit in a single mission.


This is for the first time that ISRO has put ten satellites in orbit in a single launch. This is also the PSLV's twelfth successful flight.

It is for the first time in the world that ten satellites were launched in a single mission. Russia had earlier launched eight satellites together.


The ten-pack launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation saw the 230-tonne Polar Satellite launch Vehicle carry the heaviest luggage--824 kgs--and put into orbit an Indian Mini Satellite and eight foreign nano satellites besides the Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite.
Read more

watch the vedio of PSLV making world record

Since chandrayaan-1 launch has been delayed till july here's something that i dug up on the rider that will take chandrayaan to the moon!!

The PSLV is the launch vehicle that will actually take chandrayaan and separate it from earth's orbit towards its 4 day journey to the moon.

As wikipedia reports
"
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (usually known by its acronym, PSLV) is an expendable launch system operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into sun synchronous orbits, a service that was, until the advent of the PSLV, commercially viable only from Russia. PSLV can also launch small size satellites into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).

"

Read more about PSLV at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Satellite_Launch_Vehicle

and if this has excited you then please do read this http://pib.nic.in/archieve/factsheet/fs2000/space.html

This link lists the MILESTONES IN THE INDIAN SPACE PROGRAMME!!!

Must for any space enthusiast!!