The Chandrayan I mission is over, said ISRO. Annadurai, the project director of Chandryan I, said that ISRO has not been able to establish link with the spacecraft and it will not be established in future also. The ‘mission is over’, he lamented. The unmanned Chandrayan, the spacecraft, launched by ISRO on 22nd October, 2008 from Satish Dhavan centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh was the first such scientific and space mission of India. This spacecraft was launched with PSLV-C-11, the indigenously developed launch vehicle. The proposal to send this moon mission, prepared by ISRO, was approved by government in November, 2003 and about 386 Crore rupees were spent on this mission.
DESIGN LIFE AND MISSION LIFE- the design life of this space craft was two years, meaning thereby that this space craft was expected to remain in the orbit at least up to October, 2010. The spacecraft developed some technical snag within few months of its launch. The star sensor of the craft had gone out of order owing to which the photographs sent by the Chandrayan were not as clear as they should have been. Some scientists had casted a shadow of doubt that time itself that this spacecraft would not survive its full life. Due to some other snag, the craft suddenly went overheated, but it was rectified soon.
As far as mission life is concerned, many scientists believe that this spacecraft has been successful and has sent about 95% of the data expected. The solar plate fitted (700 watt) spacecraft fixed national flag on surface of the moon and sent very useful pictorial and digital data which are of immense scientific experiment under Research and Developed programme (R&D). Among other scientific experiments and discoveries, the space craft was inserted into the Moon’s orbit to discover the history of origin of Moon, its geographical structure and terrain, collection of some meteorological data and install some scientific instruments on moon. Chandrayan-I accomplished most of them, the scientists said. The majority scientists are of the opinion that the conditions around the moon’s orbit are very hostile under which the spacecraft has to survive, it is therefore the life tenure of these spacecrafts sometimes gets shorter, they add.
FATE OF CHANDRAYAN-I -The spacecraft’s technical life has come to an end within 10 months of its launch, but this does not mean that the spacecraft would fell down into the earth immediately. This craft would continue to rotate in the 200 km orbit, which is very stable orbit, around the moon for many years as ‘Space Debris’. The scientist communities say that after revolving and rotating for many years, the space craft would dash to the moon and would be destroyed. There are so many spacecrafts which still remain in space as space debris.
SIGNIFICANCE OF CHADRAYAN-I – the mission helped India become member of elite club of nations which include countries like Germany, USA, U.K., Japan and China. Although Chandrayan-I could not survive its full life tenure, it holds a significant scientific place in the success story of Indian space programme. India is expected to launch Chandrayan-II, the improved version of Chandrayan-I, sometimes in 2012. The shortcomings in this mission could be utilised in the phase-II of chandrayan by the scientists, on which we have great faith. Hopefully Chandrayan II would be able to complete the unfinished tasks of the Chandrayan I and India would embark on many more such scientific voyages.
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