Communication Lost With Indian Moon Satellite

stoolpigeon writes "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)."

Hopefully...

[Sawopox]

They will at least find out what happened. The more efficient space agencies we have exploring, the better overall for the planet.

Makes the game more fun.

Please do the needful!

[Random Q. Hacker]

If the needful had been done, this would not have happened.

Re:reboot ?

[lxt518052]

Watchdog.

Link to another forum- same topic

[Advocatus Diaboli]

A more detailed discussion - from the Indian viewpoint. http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4395&start=1440 [bharat-rakshak.com]

Re:Go India!

[dangle]

There's an interesting (for many reasons) video on the Chandrayaan site:

http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/resources_videoCrater.htm [isro.org]

In it, they allude to India as having the second highest number of scientists in the world.

Overall, a successful mission, given the difficulty and chance of failure (Item 20 in their FAQ):

http://www.isro.org/chandrayaan/htmls/faqs.htm [isro.org]

Re:Please do the needful!

[panthrkub]

Aye. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_the_needful [wikipedia.org]

Re:Go India!

[FleaPlus]

Before this thread fills up completely with cynical wisecracking Americans, let me be the first to say, as a cynical wisecracking American, go India!

Seriously. You guys have a very solid set of rockets, a good broad focus (China's too focused on manned missions), and the technical skills to make it happen.

Also, I found it a little strange that the BBC article didn't mention this, but the Chandrayaan-1 had already been in successful operation for 312 days and had completed all of its primary mission goals. It had already collected plenty of scientific data, distributed to not just Indian scientists but also collaborators in Europe and the US. Of course, another year would be nice, but I'd consider the project a stunning success by just about any reasonable definition, especially since it was India's first ever lunar probe.

I look forward to India's Chandrayaan-2, which is planned to land a robotic rover on the Moon in 2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrayaan-1#Completion_of_primary_objectives [wikipedia.org]

Sigh

[WindBourne]

I wish that ppl would stop trying to assign DOLLAR figures to China, Indian, or any other country that ties their money to a certain money. Saying that it cost 75 million is plain wrong (most estimates in India show it to be in the $90-95 million). Right now, the Rupee is FORCED by India to trade at 48 rupee to a dollar. According to most economist, it should be around half of that, or possibly less (more difficult to pin this down, than say the Chinese games with Yuans). As such, the missions is around $150-200 million. But, that is STILL not the full truth. The majority of expensive instruments on the sat are from different countries. Basically, the LAUNCH is what costs about $100-150 million, with the sat being less than $50 million. And at a 100 million per launch, they are on par with America, Russia, and EU.

I am not trying to belittle their efforts. In fact, far from it. I applaud them and hope that we will bring them into the ISS down the road. BUT, I still prefer that ppl are honest about what is going on.

Re:Orbiting the moon is exceptionally difficult

[Anonymous Coward]

No.

The lumps of heavier density inside the moon caused localized areas of increased gravity which tries to pull the satellite down. There is no force, except that provided by any motors on board the satellite, that would sent it out towards space.

No other force is required. Inhomogeneities in the moon's density change the effective radial potential (central force + angular momentum contribution) felt by the satellite with the satellite's angular position relative to the moon. This could easily throw the satellite into a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit.

What school of logic do you claim as an Alma Mata?

If you insist on using this line when being snarky in the future, it's "Alma Mater".

Re:Wtf BBC? Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

Two words: [citation needed]

India is doing if not better, at least as good as any low to middle income country in the world as far as healthcare is concerned. Combined government and non-government expenditure on health is more than 6% GDP which is what China and other low to mid income countries spend. (Source: WHR 2008 [who.int]).

There might be some well off people in india but the vast majority of the population live in poverty that westerners would find hard to imagine.

This was true decades ago. You will be surprised what consistent 8% growth over many years can do. The vast majority in India is now above the International poverty line. World Bank 2005 estimates suggest that the percentage of people living below $1.25 a day in 2005 decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005. At a dollar a day, poverty declined from 42% to 24% over the same period. (Source:World Bank Povert report 2005 [worldbank.org.in])

Re:Hopefully...

[vu2lid]

I am quoting from a local language news paper ( http://www.keralakaumudi.com/ [keralakaumudi.com] ) from India:

Preliminary analysis shows that Chandrayan likely failed due to inadequate heat shielding (problem was radiated heat from the Moon) causing some of the instruments to fail (like Star Sensor). They raised the orbit to around 200km (from the initial 100km) to save the mission and it did not help much.

According to the report Chandrayan was successful in completing 95 percent of the mission objectives. The reports also said that they (ISRO) are going ahead with the next moon mission.