Chandrayaan-I moon mission over

Ten months after it was launched, India's maiden moon mission the Chandrayaan-1 came to an abrupt end today after ISRO lost communication with the spacecraft.

Project Director of the Chandrayaan-1 mission said that the mission is over as we have lost contact with the spacecraft. However, he said that Chandrayaan-1 has done its 90-95% job.

At the moment moon mission has been suspended. The two year moon mission was launched on last October and was abandoned today after radio contact with the mooncraft was abruptly lost at 0130 hours.

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 and providing meaningful
data for study by physics students at many world's research universities.

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

Foreign universities' satellites to be launched by ISRO

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up to launch foreign universities into space.

Five months after ISRO launched India's first student satellite " Anusat" on April 20 , it will place in orbit four university satellites in September.They are from Germany, Switzerland and Turkey. "Chandrayaan-1 " and "Anusat" have boosted India's space program.

India will launch a Turkish student satellite in September.

India will launch six international nano satellites mainly from Germany and one from Turkey totally weighing 25 kg.

The tiny foreign satellites are "Rubin 9.1", and " Rubin 9.2" both from Germany. "Rubin 9.1" is related to the field of communications." Rubin 9.2" is for technology demonstration.

The satellite from Switzerland is called "Swisscube-1", which is first entirely built Swiss student satellite.

The launch is scheduled for the second half of September and the launch campaign has been initiated.

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Indian moon mission saved

India's only satellite Chandrayaan -I orbiting moon came close to overheating and failure but scientists improvised to save it.

Last month the satellite lost a critical instrument called the star sensor. The sensor helps the $80-million satellite stay oriented so its cameras and other recording equipment are constantly aimed at the lunar surface. Without the sensor , the mission is useless.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) team used other systems such as an antenna mechanism and gyroscope to make sure that satellite was " looking at the moon". Now, the mission is safe and the systems are working.

Chandrayaan is scheduled to last two years. Scientists hope that Chandrayaan project will boost India's capacity to build more efficient rockets and satellites.

Chandrayaan likely to join U.S spacecraft for water probe

India's Chandrayaan-I probe will be joining two U.S spacecraft to be launched this year in looking for water on the Moon.
NASA plans to launch the Lunar Reconnaissance (LRO)as well as the Lunar Crater Observation an Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) on an Atlas V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
One of the instruments on Chandrayaan-I, which is currently circling the Moon, is a compact imaging radar known as Mini-SAR developed by the U.S scientists to look for signs of water-ice at the bottom of lunar craters that are permanently in shadow. A similar sort of radar, called Mini-RF, is flying on LRO as well.

Magnesium, Aluminium and Silicon detected on moon

The Chandrayaan-I X-ray Spectrometer (CIXS) orbiting the moon has send data which indicates the presence of Magnesium, Aluminium and Silicon.
The X-rays are absorbed by the atoms in the lunar soil and are remitted in a way which reveals the make-up of the surface.
Spectrometer is sensitive to magnesium, aluminium and silicon X-rays. It may also make measurements of elements like iron, titanium and calcium when solar illumination is bright.

Scientists to review data of Chandrayaan -I

Scientists from various countries will participate in the first meeting to review scientific findings from the data collected by Chandrayaan -I and the scientists are expecting something new about the moon to emerge from their meeting.

One of the instruments of Chandrayaan -I, MiniSAR, has the objective of detecting water ice in regions on the lunar surface which will be a step towards setting up a colony in the moon.