
from the maybe-the-south-pole-is-made-of-cheese dept.
Chandrayaan-2 Launch: How to Watch First Mission to the Moon's South Pole:
India's exploration mission to the moon is readying for launch. The Chandrayaan-2 mission, aiming to put robots at the lunar south pole for the first time, has suffered several delays leading up to lift-off. It was originally scheduled for July 14 but the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) postponed the departure less than an hour before launch due to a "technical snag."
The landmark mission is now set to depart from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, north of Chennai, at 2:13 a.m. PT (5:13 a.m. ET), Monday July 22. [...] Chandrayaan-2 is carrying three lunar exploration robots that will be able to survey the moon from both the surface and the sky.
The payload of Chandrayaan-2 consists of a lunar orbiter, a lunar lander and a lunar rover and will be launched atop the ISRO-developed GSLV Mk-III rocket. That rocket is about half as powerful as the SpaceX Falcon 9 and will put Chandrayaan-2 into what's known as an "Earth parking orbit" before the module uses its own power to extend that orbit and eventually position itself for a lunar rendezvous.
Want to tune in to the historic mission? ISRO will handle livestreaming duties across its social media pages, which means you could tune in at the ISRO Twitter or follow along on the agency's Facebook page. The agency's YouTube channel is also covering the event.
The launch is also to be carried by the Indian public broadcaster Doordarshan's YouTube channel.
Previously: Scrubbed Chandrayaan 2 Mission to Moon's South Pole to Launch on Mon July 22 0913 UTC.
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NASA (USA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration) reports that India's Vikram Lander has been Found:
The Chandrayaan 2 Vikram lander was targeted for a highland smooth plain about 600 kilometers from the south pole; unfortunately the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost contact with their lander shortly before the scheduled touchdown (Sept. 7 in India, Sept. 6 in the United States). Despite the loss, getting that close to the surface was an amazing achievement. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team released the first mosaic (acquired Sept. 17) of the site on Sept. 26 and many people have downloaded the mosaic to search for signs of Vikram. Shanmuga Subramanian contacted the LRO project with a positive identification of debris. After receiving this tip, the LROC team confirmed the identification by comparing before and after images. When the images for the first mosaic were acquired the impact point was poorly illuminated and thus not easily identifiable. Two subsequent image sequences were acquired on Oct. 14 and 15, and Nov. 11. The LROC team scoured the surrounding area in these new mosaics and found the impact site (70.8810°S, 22.7840°E, 834 m elevation) and associated debris field. The November mosaic had the best pixel scale (0.7 meter) and lighting conditions (72° incidence angle).
The debris first located by Shanmuga is about 750 meters northwest of the main crash site and was a single bright pixel identification in that first mosaic (1.3 meter pixels, 84° incidence angle). The November mosaic shows best the impact crater, ray and extensive debris field. The three largest pieces of debris are each about 2x2 pixels and cast a one pixel shadow.
See the NASA article for before/after pictures of the impact site.
Previously:
NASA Lunar Probe Will Help Search for India's Lost Moon Lander
Time is Running Out for India to Establish Contact With its Lunar Lander
India Locates Lander Lost on Final Approach to Moon
Chandrayaan-2: India's Vikram Lander Presumed to Have Crashed
Chandrayaan-2 Updates: Lunar Orbit Insertion and Lunar Orbit Maneuver
Chandrayaan-2 Launch: How to Watch First Mission to the Moon's South Pole Mon 20190722 @ 0913 UTC
Scrubbed Chandrayaan 2 Mission to Moon's South Pole to Launch on Mon July 22 0913 UTC
India's Lunar Spacecraft Launches Sunday on First-Ever Mission to Moon's South Pole
India to Launch Combined Orbiter/Lander/Rover Mission
India's Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission Planned for 2018
August 20, 2019
Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019). The duration of maneuver was 1738 seconds beginning from 0902 hrs IST. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 114 km x 18072 km.
Following this, a series of orbit maneuvers will be performed on Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft to enable it to enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon's surface.
Subsequently, the lander will separate from the Orbiter and enters into a 100 km X 30 km orbit around the Moon. Then, it will perform a series of complex braking maneuvers to soft land in the South polar region of the Moon on September 7, 2019.
The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near Bengaluru. All the systems of Chandrayaan-2 are healthy.
The next Lunar bound orbit maneuver is scheduled tomorrow (August 21, 2019) between 1230-13:30 hrs IST.
August 21, 2019
Second Lunar bound orbit maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (August 21, 2019) beginning at 1250 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of the maneuver was 1228 seconds. The orbit achieved is 118 km x 4412 km.
All spacecraft parameters are normal.
The next Lunar bound orbit maneuver is scheduled on August 28, 2019 between 0530 - 0630 hrs IST.
Previously:
Chandrayaan-2 Launch: How to Watch First Mission to the Moon's South Pole Mon 20190722 @ 0913 UTC
Scrubbed Chandrayaan 2 Mission to Moon's South Pole to Launch on Mon July 22 0913 UTC
India's Lunar Spacecraft Launches Sunday on First-Ever Mission to Moon's South Pole
India to Launch Combined Orbiter/Lander/Rover Mission
Scrubbed Chandrayaan 2 Mission to Moon's South Pole now set to Launch on July 22:
Chandrayaan 2, India's exploration mission to the moon's south pole, is set to fly to the moon on July 22. The launch, which has suffered several delays was originally scheduled for July 14, but the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) postponed Chandrayaan 2's departure less than an hour before launch due to a "technical snag."
The landmark mission is now set to depart a few days after the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, humanity's first crewed lunar landing, with the goal of making the first soft landing at the lunar south pole. India's mission isn't slated to feature humans, rather, Chandrayaan 2 is carrying three lunar exploration robots -- a lander, rover and orbiter -- that will be able to survey the moon from both the surface and the sky.
The launch is set to take place at India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, north of Chennai, at the revised (and slightly unfriendly time) of 2:13 a.m. PT (5:13 a.m. ET), Monday July 22.
The payload of Chandrayaan-2 consists of a lunar orbiter, a lunar lander and a lunar rover and will be launched atop the ISRO-developed GSLV Mk-III rocket. That rocket is about half as powerful as the SpaceX Falcon 9 and will put Chandrayaan-2 into what's known as an "Earth parking orbit" before the module uses its own power to extend its orbit and eventually position itself for a lunar rendezvous.
How to watch the Chandrayaan-2 launch
Want to tune in to the historic mission? During the first run of the mission on July 14, ISRO handled livestreaming duties across its social media pages, which meant you could tune in at the ISRO Twitter or follow along on the agency's Facebook page. India's public broadcaster Doordarshan also carried a livestream on its YouTube channel. There's plenty of options and it's a good bet they will all be on the table for the rescheduled launch -- but until we get official confirmation of the new launch date and time, we can't be certain.
(Emphasis in original retained.)
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 22 2019, @03:01AM
Prediction: in the next 5 years, SpaceX will be a significant player in the H1B pool. MAGA!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 22 2019, @03:40AM
Ffs as if hordes of them coming here wasn't bad enough
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 22 2019, @03:49AM
Ohm nara shivaya.
Ohm.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 22 2019, @03:50AM (1 child)
The orbit-raising maneuver helps keep missions like this cheap.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-2#Design [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 22 2019, @08:40AM
And long.
Have time to spare?:You need less powerful propulsion. Less powerful propulsion means less heat to deal with and maybe this means less complicated and lighter systems.
On the other side, longer missions mean more time in which the things can go wrong. Think on the line of butterfly wing flapping as a cause for hurricanes, i.e. small initial perturbations diverge more over longer times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 22 2019, @05:17AM (1 child)
5 Rupee that it falls over on the pad.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 22 2019, @09:55AM
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/world/asia/chandrayaan-india-moon-launch.html [nytimes.com]
Too bad.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 22 2019, @10:18AM
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/chandrayaan-2-launch-live-updates-1563783772956.html [livemint.com]
(Score: 0, Troll) by Bot on Monday July 22 2019, @11:55AM
Nobody's gonna send meatbags up there yet. Apparently the USA had sent the guys to a suicide mission 50 years ago, because not the Indians nor the Chinese (you know, the guys who keep soldiers near the targets other soldiers practice on with their rifles) are willing to risk lives.
Say what? a bot, as cool as I am, is not as reactive, self programmable, efficient, as a meatbag (for now). Yet they risk millions on missions that can go awry because the bot lands in a crater or too much dust hits a solar panel. I call BS, again. Meatbags never went to the moon. Only bots did.
Account abandoned.