India’s first unmanned moon mission spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 is performing well within all scientific parameters till date since its launch. Now the scientists at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are expecting the lunar probe to enter into it’s last orbit on Nov 15. Creating a history of leaving Earth’s gravity by any Indian made spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1 enters into the celestial space towards the moon at 4.56 am on Tuesday last! It was a great achievement for India, and particularly for ISRO.In place of planned five minutes firing, the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) on board of Chandrayaan-1 was fired for only about two-and-a-half minutes to make the spacecraft positioned along the moon’s highway taking it away from the Earth’s gravity effect. So smooth switch over and fine maneuvering of the lunar spacecraft has made Indian scientists jubilant at home. At the time of transition, apogee (farthest point to earth) of Chandrayaan-1 was 3,84,000 km and it was only 500 km away from the lunar surface.
About the lunar transfer trajectory, Mylaswamy Annadurai, Chandrayaan-1 project director said, “I was at ISRO’s telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) at Bangalore since early morning and we were going step by step very carefully. As soon as we received a signal that Chandrayaan had successfully entered the main highway to the moon, there was a jubilation in the mission control room”.
Next critical stage of the mission is lunar orbit insertion (LOI); but scientists are at no pressure to face LOI on Saturday between 5 pm and 6 pm. “I am hoping that the manoeuvre will go off smoothly on Saturday too,” Annadurai said.
LOI is a complex stage for any moon mission, as about 30% of moon missions of US and erstwhile Soviet Union have failed during this stage. ISRO is now gearing up for the ‘D’ day. After successfully establishing at the lunar orbit, Chandrayaan-1 will send images of the lunar surface with the help of Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) available on board of the spacecraft. The camera is kept switched on, which has already sent black & white pictures of Earth back home.
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