DNA SPECIAL
India is all set to join the elite group of countries who have launched a mission to the moon. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan 1 — to be launched by the end of 2007 or beginning of 2008 — also marks an important step in Indo-US collaboration in the field of space exploration as it becomes the first Indian mission that will carry a NASA payload. In an exclusive interview to DNA, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair talks about the ISRO-NASA collaboration and India’s future plans in space exploration.
What is the Chandrayaan-1 mission?
Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the moon will help enhance the knowledge about it, upgrade India’s technological capabilities in space and provide new opportunities for younger generation of scientists.
What technology will be exhibited in this mission?
Important technologies that will be used include establishing the capability to send a spacecraft beyond the earth’s orbit to the moon, conducting precise orbital manouevres to place the spacecraft in an orbit around the moon, and establishing a Deep Space Tracking Station to monitor and control the spacecraft.
How important is Chandrayaan to ISRO’s plans for the next decade?
Chandrayaan-1 is significant for Indian space programme in its quest for planetary exploration. Being the first venture beyond the confines of earth’s orbit, it will herald India’s entry into the planetary exploration and help in planning further missions to the moon and beyond.
What is the strategic significance of the ISRO-NASA collaboration?
This is the first time that American scientific instruments are being flown in an Indian spacecraft. But Indo-US cooperation in the space arena dates back to the very beginning of the Indian space programme. The first sounding rocket launched from Thumba on November 21, 1963 was a US made rocket. All the four satellites under the INSAT-1 series were built by a US company to India’s design.
Is this collaboration symbolic or does it have scientific value?
There is no doubt that the two instruments from NASA will have immense scientific value. In fact, one of the US scientific instruments, Mini-SAR, will look for water presence in the lunar polar region. The Moon Minerology Mapper (M3) is intended to characterise the mineral content on the moon which is important to tap these lunar resources in the future.
Why were NASA and ISRO not working together all these years?
We have worked together in the past. However, there was a period during which the cooperation was on low key due to embargoes from US after the Pokhran event. But, things are looking up again and some ISRO establishments have been removed from the US Entity list.
What is ISRO hoping to gain from collaborating with NASA?
The US instruments were selected based on merit and to enhance the scope of Chandrayaan-1 mission by instruments that can supplement and complement Indian instruments. The benefit is for both the countries and to the international scientific community.
How do you react to NASA’s refusal to allow Indian astronauts to be a part of the space shuttle mission?
This is not a question of refusal by NASA. NASA is using its Space Shuttles mainly to complete the construction of International Space Station that is of priority as well as to service the Hubble Space Telescope. There is no space capacity to include a mission to take an Indian astronaut.
Why is ISRO sending a mission to moon considering that they are things of past?
It is true that many spacecraft were launched to the moon in the past. But not everything about moon has been understood like its origin and evolution. Besides, detailed understanding of the lunar topography and the distribution of various minerals on its surface is yet to take place. More than that, it really is a technical and scientific challenge.
What are ISRO’s other plans for the next few years?
The immediate priority is to have a good Chandrayaan-1 mission. It will give the required confidence and capability to undertake future planetary exploration. Mars exploration is the next logical step for consideration.
The Chandrayaan 1 mission
It consists of an unmanned spacecraft that weighs about 1,300 kg at the time of its launch and about 525 kg in its final orbit around moon.
The main scientific instruments on board Chandrayaan-1 are Terrain Mapping Camera, a Hyper Spectral Imager, a High-Energy X-ray spectrometer, a Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument and a Moon Impact Probe.
Six instruments from international community will ride piggyback on the spacecraft.
The two NASA instruments selected are Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar and Moon Mineralogy Mapper.
Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft will be launched by PSLV into an elliptical orbit around the earth.
The spacecraft will be controlled and scientific data will be received by a Deep Space Tracking Network Station near Bangalore.
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