Posted on 08/29/2009 6:29:23 AM PDT by csvset
All communication links with the only Indian satellite orbiting the Moon have been lost, India's space agency says.
Radio contact with the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was lost abruptly early on Saturday, said India's Bangalore-based Space Research Organization (Isro).
The unmanned craft was launched last October in what was billed as a two-year mission of exploration.
The launch was regarded as a major step for India as it seeks to keep pace with other space-faring nations in Asia.
Following its launch from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, it was hoped the robotic probe would orbit the Moon, compile a 3-D atlas of the lunar surface and map the distribution of elements and minerals.
Useful mission?
Last month the satellite experienced a technical problem when a sensor malfunctioned.
An Isro spokesman said at the time that useful information had already been gathered from pictures beamed to Earth from the probe, although the picture quality had been affected by the malfunction.
Powered by a single solar panel generating about 700 watts, the Isro probe carries five Indian-built instruments and six constructed in other countries, including the US, Britain and Germany.
The mission was expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m), considerably less than Japanese and Chinese probes sent to the Moon last year.
But the Indian government's space efforts have not been welcomed by all.
Some critics regard the space programme as a waste of resources in a country where millions still lack basic services.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Space ping
must’ve outsourced their software to india. oh, sorry, didn’t read that right.
They live on the backside of the moon....
“We’ve just lost the moon.”
Maybe they could hire the NASA to send the Shuttle up there and repair it.
“Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, launched by homegrown PSLV-C11 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, has completed 312 days in orbit, making more than 3,400 orbits around the moon.
It has provided large volume of data from sophisticated sensors such as terrain mapping camera, hyper-spectral imager and moon mineralogy mapper, meeting most of the scientific objectives of the mission.
ISRO said last month Chandrayaan-1 had sent more than 70,000 images of the lunar surface which provide breathtaking views of lunar mountains and craters, especially craters in the permanently shadowed areas of the Moon’s polar region.
Chandrayaan-1 was also collecting valuable data pertaining to the chemical and mineral content of the Moon, ISRO said on July 17.
Significantly, on August 21, ISRO and NASA performed a unique joint experiment that the Indian space agency said could yield additional information on the possibility of existence of ice in a permanently shadowed crater near the North Pole of the moon.
The end to the Chandrayaan-1 mission comes just over four months after the onboard star sensor for determining the orientation of the spacecraft started malfunctioning on April 26, and one of the bus management units failed.”
I hear it was fueled with a large tank of Slurpees... I wonder if they sprung a leak...
See? People should always back up their browser bookmarks file.
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