NASA scientists have confirmed ice created by water on the moon’s surface, a discovery that could play a significant role in future space missions. NASA’s Moon Minerology Mapper (M3) placed abroad India’s Chandrayan-1 mission in 2008 helped NASA confirm the frozen water deposits in the darkest and coldest parts of the Moon. M3 collected data that not only picked up the reflective properties of ice, but was able to directly measure the distinctive way its molecules absorb infra-red light, so it can differentiate between liquid water or vapor and solid ice. A team of scientists, led by Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii and Brown University, used data from NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper to confirm the water ice at the moon’s dark and cold north and south poles. Most of the newfound water ice lies in the shadows of craters near the poles. Because of the very small tilt of the Moon’s rotation axis, sunlight never reaches these regions. According to NASA, “With enough ice sitting at the surface – within the top few millimeters – water would possibly be accessible as a resource for future expeditions to explore and even stay on the moon, and potentially easier to access than the water detected beneath the moon’s surface”.
India is now getting ready to launch Chandrayan-2 next year and a manned mission to moon in 2022. During his address from Red Fort on 15 August 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would launch a manned mission in space in the year 2022 – the 75th Independence year. Concurrently, K Sivan, Chairman ISRO confirmed the plan saying ISRO is planning to put an Indian astronaut in space for seven days at cost of less than Rs 10,000 crore, using the rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV-Mk III), adding, “He (the astronaut) will be in a spacecraft, 300-400 km above the earth Sivan also said that there will be two unmanned space missions before the actual manned space mission, and the first unmanned flight as part of a manned space mission will happen two years from now. Sivan said that approval for the expenditure is yet to be obtained and whether there an animal will be launched in space prior to manned flight is to be discussed. However, he confirmed that ISRO plans to develop everything for the manned flight indigenously and are already in the process of developing some of the technologies, including like support system for the astronaut, space suit, etc in conjunction private industry.
On July 5, 2018, ISRO had successfully conducted a maiden pad abort test at its spaceport in Sriharkota for safe escape of the crew in an emergency; critical technology for manned mission, designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort. According to Sivam, selection of astronaut to fly the spacecraft would be done by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the spaceflight training would be given overseas. A manned mission in space would be a stupendous achievement for India, especially with only Russia, US and China having successfully done so to-date. In 2019, ISRO plans to launch 22 missions, with an overall aim of launching 50 successful missions over the next three years. The postponement of launch of Chandrayan-2 from 2018 to 2019 has already been in the news. Chandrayan-2, is now set to launch between January 3 and mid-March 2019. The postponement was due to multiple changes that were required with the entire configuration of the mission changed.
In addition to Chandrayan-2, ISRO’s key missions in 2019 will be Aditya-L1 solar mission and two demonstration flights of the SSLV: small satellite launch vehicle. Aditya-L1 will study the Sun’s surface. ISRO’s launch activity will pick up from September 2018 with launch on PSLV-C43 of two UK satellites dedicated for commercial use. In October, the GSLV Mk-III D2 will launch GSAT-29 followed by PSLV-C43 launching a hyper spectral imaging satellite with 30 commercial co-passengers. GSAT-11 will be launched in November 2018 using Arianspace services, followed by launch of GSAT-31 as replacement of INSAT-4CR slated for decommissioning in January 2019. In addition, ISRO is also to launch RISAT-2B satellite by end 2018. Other big launches include GSAT-20 in August, the GSAT-30 replacing INSAT-4A and IRNSS-1J carrying indigenous atomic clock. ISRO has already done one demonstration flight of the SSLV and plans the second one in October 2018, before going into the production phase. These launch vehicles will cost one-tenth price of PSLV and 72 hours launch preparation time compared to 45 days for PSLV. SSLV also needs 3-4 people to prepare compared to 300 in case of PSLV albeit SSLV can only launch payloads of 500-700 kg. ISRO hope private industry will start their production of these soon. ISRO also plans for a consortium of industries to commence production of the PSLV.
In August 2108, ISRO announced plans to launch a TV channel for promoting scientific temper among public and conduct training camps for school children. Named ‘ISRO TV’, it is to make the scientific benefits reach people across the country, down to reach even the rural parts of India. It will broadcast in multiple regional languages as well as English to promote scientific mindset and make public aware of benefits of the space programs. In addition, ISRO also plans setting up a module for students from classes 8-10 to be trained at the space agency for a month. Talking to the media, ISRO chief said, “We don’t have any science TV channel. This channel will inculcate scientific temper among people”, adding, “We want to have an incubation centre. Our aim is that the best brain and the research and development should be realized. These start-ups can contribute to ISRO without joining us”.
While wishing ISRO all success in its spectacular journey, the organization, the policy makers and the powers that be need to bear in mind three critical issues: first, we must ensure 24×7 satellite surveillance along our borders, particularly along our borders with China-Pakistan and coastal areas; second, our adversaries, China in particular, should be expected to interfere in our launches / satellite flights given past experience, anonymity of the attack source, as also coercion the ambiguity generates at the asymmetric level, and; third, we must continuously strive to achieve excellence in ground resolution in imagery. ‘Gaofen-11’, China’s optical remote-sensing satellite, launched on July 31, 2018, aboard a Long March 4B rocket as part of the country’s high-resolution Earth observation project, reportedly may have ground-image resolution of 10 cm or less – second only to the US and possibly comparable to maximum resolution provided by US imaging satellites. Gaofen-11 satellite has been placed in an elliptical near-polar orbit, which gives it an altitude of 693 km at its apogee and 247 km at its perigee, which occurs at 10:00 h local time at latitude 20° N -– such as when passing over the South China Sea, India, or Hawaii.
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