Space Odyssey, an enigmatic adaptation of a short story by sci-fi author Arthur Clarke is a connection between the past and the future. When Dr. Dave Bowman, Keir Dullea and other astronauts were sent on a mysterious mission, their ship’s computer system, HAL, begins to display increasingly strange behaviour, leading up to a tense showdown between man and machine that results in a mind-bending trek through space and time. Man has been fascinated by the yonder from time immemorial. The 2001 movie may have inadvertently showcased the future of space missions. Several countries have had some very successful space missions that saw men stepping on moon, several astronauts space walking and even space stations being setup. In as much as these tend to expand man’s reach into the unknown, their greed may even see space wars in future. The Indian space mission too took off in mid-seventies when Aryabhata the Indian satellite was put into space by a Russian launch vehicle. However, the last decade and half saw the country progress so much so that it is now capable of not only launching its own, but others satellite too.
It is fascinating to be able to reach out to the celestial bodies in our galaxy under the influence of the Sun like the planets, their natural satellites, the plutoids, asteroids and comets. Over the past 50 years mankind has sent almost 100 missions to the moon, though not all of them were successful. The Japanese had a mission that actually returned after probing an asteroid. The Americans have even landed on the Moon way back in 1969. The Indian Lunar Mission is important, since it allows us to know a lot more about the lunar surface and its underneath in addition to help the country achieve parity.
Chandrayaan I, India’s most ambitious Moon Mission developed in house, was launched in October 2008 using a PSLV-XL rocket. It included a lunar orbiter and an impactor. The impact probe hit the crater Shackleton and ejected sub surface soil that was analysed for the presence of ice or lunar water. The remote sensing satellite had a mass of 1,380 kg at launch, 675 kg in lunar orbit and carried high resolution remote sensing equipment for visible, near infrared, and soft and hard X-ray frequencies. The mission also carried free of cost payloads from other space agencies including NASA, ESA, and the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency. It produced a complete map of the soil’s chemical characteristics and created a 3D topography. In fact, a major success of Chandrayaan-1 was the discovery of widespread presence of water molecules in lunar soil at the Poles. India managed to pull off its first space odyssey at an estimated cost of measly ₹386 crore or US$56 million, the cheapest among its contemporaries.
Robert Frost, in his epic ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ had said ‘The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep’ The quest for woods and snowy evenings beyond our planet, the promises made to the citizens to keep and the millions of miles to travel in that quest, our scientists and engineers truly may not have slept after the success of Chandrayaan I. Building on the success of this launch, they developed a very technologically challenging lunar exploration mission Chandrayaan-2 that includes a lunar orbiter, lander and rover that has an approximate lift-off mass of 3,877 kg three times the earlier launch mass. It carries several high precision instruments like Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (LASS) and Solar X-ray monitor (XSM) that would add value to the mission objectives. Once again, coming at a fraction of a price of similar in the World, the Mission is a true feather in the cap of ISRO.
This mission is expected to collect data about the moon’s geology, mineralogy and topography through terrain mapping. Further, the probe will orbit the moon in search of signs of water ice and other minerals in permanently shaded craters at the lunar poles giving a great insight to future manned launches to Moon, return missions, prospecting and mapping the moon’s gravitational field. India has been a power house of science expeditions and explorations as depicted in our scriptures. It once again aims to be even better in the modern age.
One of the most challenging tasks of this probe is to soft land on the Moon surface as against crashing on to the surface, allowing a capability to land men on Moon. A very tricky manoeuvre since the lander must slow down above the moon’s surface, descending on rocket power and also achieve the desired orientation during descent and cushioning the impact on the ground. Only Countries like the US, the erstwhile Soviet Union, China and Japan have achieved this earlier. Great company to keep indeed.
The lunar South Pole covering a distance of about 1250 km is of special interest to us because of the possibility of water ice in permanently shadowed areas around it. Of the lunar poles, the South Pole is of greater interest because the area that remains in shadow is much larger than that at the North Pole. The lunar South Pole craters are unique in that sunlight does not reach the bottom. Such craters are cold traps that contain a fossil record of the early Solar System. Study of South Pole can even contribute to the available knowledge on how our solar system has evolved. However, the greatest risk of exploring shadowed areas is loss of communication.
A perfect lift off and a perfect soft landing is a scientist’s delight. The ability to beat the gravitational force, beat the limitations posed by extreme rigid body and non-rigid body dynamics, and land a rover that would explore the surface are all challenges. Impact dynamics and the mechanics of inertia can render equipment to malfunction and even disable them. September 6th when the probe is expected to land on the Moon will truly be memorable.
A successful expedition must result in the capability to undertake future manned missions and locate possible signs of life. Moon exploration for minerals would be very important. Finally, the pride that India figures among the best and the top is a high that nothing can beat. Yes, we will be up there, with the best soon.