Heena Sharma Blog

  The Indian Space Research Organisation has come out with an 'Announcement of Opportunity" (AO), seeking proposals towards scientific analysis and utilisation of data from all experiments of the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. According to ISRO, the data from Chandrayaan-1 had been extensively used by Indian researchers to understand lunar morphology, surface age determination and composition of the lunar surface, studies on the possible presence of magmatic as well as exogenic water. "These studies have provided enhanced thoughtful views regarding lunar evolutionary processes", the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said. "Such studies from Chandrayaan-1 have considerably expanded Indian lunar science community". To further strengthen the Indian research community for lunar science studies, Chandrayaan-2 orbiter payloads data are made available to public and scientific proposals are solicited for scientific analysis, it said. Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is cur...

The Indian Space Research Organisation has gotten over the setback it suffered on account of the Chandrayaan-2 mission , and has ended the year with six launch vehicle missions and seven satellite missions. The number is lower than that achieved in 2018, when Isro had completed 16 missions and was preparing for some major milestones, including the launch of Chandrayaan-2, preparing for India's first human space programme 'Gaganyaan' and its mission to the Sun: Aditya-1. At the beginning of the year 2019, Isro said it was planning as many as 32 missions, including 14 launch vehicles, 17 satellite and one Technology Demonstration missions. The complex Chandrayaan-2 and the development flights of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle or SSLVs, were an intrinsic part of this plan. SSLVs are the new member in the Launch Vehicle family. After completing 16 missions in 2018, Isro started the year 2019 not with a launch, but with the signing of an MoU with industries to outsourc...

NASA has found the crash site and debris of India's Chandrayaan-2 Vikram moon lander following a tip from an Indian space enthusiast who examined pictures of the area of the moon taken by a US orbiting camera. The site was located by Shanmuga Subramanian, who on his own scoured the pictures taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbital Camera (LROC), NASA and Arizona State University announced on Monday confirming the find. The first mosaic image of the likely crash site made from pictures taken by the LROC on September 17 was downloaded by several people to look for signs of the Vikram, NASA said. Arizona State University (ASU), where the LROC project is located, said, "After receiving this tip the LROC team confirmed the identification by comparing before and after images."One of them, Subramanian, contacted the LROC project with a positive identification of debris, it said. When the images for the first mosaic were acquired on September 17, the impact point...

India launched 14 satellites Wednesday morning, boosting the morale of its space agency which lost contact with a spacecraft to trying to land on the moon in September. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C47 (PSLV-C47) placed in orbit India's earth observation satellite Cartosat-3 and 13 nano-satellites for the US when it blasted off from the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro's) Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9:28am. Seventeen minutes after lift-off, Cartosat-3 separated from the launch vehicle and put into orbit. The 13 US satellites will be launched in the next eight minutes, completing the first business order of Isro's newly formed commercial arm NewSpace India Ltd. Cartosat-3, India’s third-generation earth observation satellite, will be used for large-scale urban planning and to monitor coastal land, rural resources and infrastructure development. The satellite, which will last for five years and weighs 1,625kg, can pick a 25-cm object fr...

Indian space agency has released fresh set of pictures of impact craters on moon surface taken by its Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday releasing a picture on its Twitter handle said the images were taken by the Dual Frequency-Synthetic Aperture Radar (DF-SAR) on its Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter. According to ISRO, the Moon has been continuously bombarded by meteorites, asteroids and comets since its formation. This has resulted in the formation of innumerable impact craters that form the most distinct geographic features on its surface. Impact craters are approximately circular depressions on the surface of the moon, ranging from small, simple, bowl-shaped depressions to large, complex, multi-ringed impact basins. "In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters typically have raised rims and floors that are lower in elevation than the surrounding terrain," ISRO said. Read ...

NASA has found no evidence of Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander in the images captured during a latest flyby of its Moon orbiter of the lunar region where India's ambitious mission attempted a soft landing, the US space agency said. On September 7, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) attempted a soft landing of Vikram on the uncharted lunar south pole, before losing communication with the lander. "The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the area of the targeted Chandrayaan-2 Vikram landing site on October 14 but did not observe any evidence of the lander," Noah Edward Petro, the Project Scientist for the LRO mission, told PTI in an exclusive email interaction. Petro said that the camera team carefully examined the images and employed the change detection technique -- using a ratio of an image from prior to the landing attempt to the one acquired on October 14. This approach, he said, is used for finding new meteorite impacts on the Moon that also hel...

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Wednesday successfully conducted final orbit raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft. It was carried out at 02:21 am IST. With this, Chandrayaan-2 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory. During this maneuver, the spacecraft's liquid engine was fired for about 1203 seconds. Earlier, the spacecraft's orbit was progressively increased five times during July 23 to August 6, 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 Byalalu, near Bengaluru. Since its launch on July 22, 2019 by GSLV MkIII-M1 vehicle, all systems onboard Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft are performing normal, said Isro officials. Chandrayaan-2 will approach Moon on August 20, 2019 and the spacecraft's liquid engine will be fired again to insert the spacecra...

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) successfully conducted the second Earth-bound orbit raising maneuver for the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft. Isro officials said that second maneuver has been performed successfully on Friday at 0108 hours (IST) as planned, using the onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of 883 seconds. The orbit achieved was 251 x 54829 km. All spacecraft parameters were normal. The third orbit raising maneuver is scheduled on July 29, 2019, between 1430–1530 hours (IST). India's second mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-2, is expected to reach the Moon on August 20, 2019. The first earth-bound orbit raising maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 was performed successfully on July 24, 2019, at 1452 hours (IST) as planned. Between July 26 and August 8, four Earth-bound maneuvers have been planned, culminating in Trans Lunar Insertion on August 14, which will send Chandrayaan-2 to the Moon. On July 22, at 2.43 pm, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch ...

India’s heaviest rocket GSLV Mk-III , nicknamed ' Bahubali ', lifted off successfully from Sriharikota on July 22. The rocket, which is carrying the Chandrayaan-2 mission, was originally planned to lift off on July 15, but the plan was aborted due to a technical glitch, that the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said on Thursday its scientists had resolved. The rocket lifted off at 2:43 pm IST on Monday, July 22, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, off the coast of Andhra Pradesh. The rocket is carrying a three-component 3,850-kg spacecraft consisting of an orbiter, lander and rover. Isro Chairman K Sivan called this a historic day for science and technology in India. “I am extremely happy to announce that GSLV-MKIII injected Chandrayaan-2 in the defined orbit which in fact is 6,000 KMS more, which is good.” “ The satellite has more life. It is the beginning of a historical journey for India to land on the moon’s south pole and explore ...