India to Reach for the Moon Next Month

If everything goes as planned, any of the days starting October 19th to 28th would be remembered as a red-letter day for us Indians. Our very first, homespun lunar probe, Chandrayaan is all set to make its first voyage to our nearest celestial body -- the Moon on these tentative dates -- depending on the weather conditions then. If the weather plays spoil sport, the mission will need to be postponed to December. In any case, a successful mission will no doubt put India in the elite club of counties who have been able to send missions to moon.

Chandrayaan is still undergoing tests and is yet to clear the vibration and acoustic tests, which it would be subjected to later this week. These tests will simulate the conditions that the probe will need to bear at the tine of launch. These include high-temperatures, vibrations during take off and not to mention, the tremendous noise that is expected of a typical rocket launch.







Chandrayaan will carry as many as 11 payloads -- five from India, three from the European Space Agency (ESA), one from the Bulgarian Space Agency (BSA) and two from NASA, making it a truly global initiative. The two-year mission will be invaluable as the Chandrayaan is programmed to orbit the Lunar surface and digitally map it. It will also send information on the traces of the composition of the lunar surface apart from looking for atomic minerals such as thorium and uranium. The probe is also equipped with high-resolution cameras which could help shed some light on the existence of water on the moon.

A modified (rather upgraded) PSLV launch vehicle will be used to transport the probe to the lunar orbit. Due to the modifications, the PSLV C-11 will have a lift-off weight of 316 tonnes, which is much higher than the "standard" 294-ton version. Additionally, the payload capacity too has been increased from 1600 kg to 1800 kg. The PSLV has been the most successful launch vehicle for ISRO till date. It also holds the record for sending as many as 10 satellites simultaneously during its last mission. This time round, it is all set to break its own record by carrying 11 different payloads.

Undoubtedly, the Indian space program has come a long way since its initial stages when the first rocket transporter happened to be a bicycle, which carried the 9 kilo rocket to the "launch pad"! That was back in 1963 when visionaries like Vikram Sarabhai and APJ Abdul Kalam laid the foundation of what has become one of the greatest success stories of India.

DESTINATION MOON

Our first moon mission, Chandrayaan-I, is in its final stages. As the nation awaits the countdown to liftoff, TOI turns a rover to take a closer look at the various


When India’s space programme took off about 40 years ago, Vikram Sarabhai, the man behind the mission, declared it should focus only on social issues. “We do not have the fantasy of competing with economically advanced nations in exploring the moon, the planets or manned space flights,’’ he said.

Space scientists, too, nodded in approval and over the years, the space programme followed the trajectory chalked out by the renowned physicist. India developed four types of rockets—the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV), the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV), the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The SLV and the ASLV launched experimental satellites, and Isro’s main workhorse, the PSLV, and the GSLV carried satellites with day-to-day applications. For instance, the PSLV launched remote sensing satellites that helped in urban development, coastal studies and crop assessment. The GSLV has ferried Insat (Indian National Satellite System) satellites for enhanced broadcasting, search and rescue operations, education and telemedicine.
At present, India has a towering presence in space with a constellation of 11 communication and eight operational remote-sensing satellites, whose performance earned the country global acclaim. But the scientists were itching to reach higher orbits. So they got into a huddle to discuss the risks of deviating from Sarabhai’s vision without losing focus of the
service-to-society objective. Leading from the front was Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, the former Isro chairman.








“We brainstormed and came to a conclusion that as most space-faring nations were focusing on space science, we, too, should do the same, particularly as we had the capability,’’ Kasturirangan told TOI.
The next big question was how. “We hit upon an idea—why not an unmanned flight to the moon? We thought about it and agreed. It was neither for the sake of competition or politics, as it was in the US, but purely for scientific reasons,’’ he said.
The experts wanted to feel the public pulse and a programme organized in Delhi on May 11, 1999, to mark the first anniversary of the Pokhran tests proved to be the perfect platform. At this forum, where he was the chief speaker, Kasturirangan spoke at length about the achievements of India’s space programme before dropping the bombshell: India was exploring the possibility of launching a rocket to the moon. The audience broke into a huge applause.
Kasturirangan consulted various scientific bodies—the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Astronautical Society of India—which gave the goahead. The move was endorsed by the Parliamentary standing committee of science and technology and the specially-constituted Lunar Task Force.
Finally, during his I-Day address in 2003, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced from Red Fort India’s plan to go to the moon and named the mission ‘Chandrayaan’, meaning mooncraft in Sanskrit