CHENNAI: A day after NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced rediscovery of India’s first interplanetary spacecraft Chandrayaan-1, which lost contact in 2009, scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the spacecraft identity was confirmed based on ISRO’s model predictions.
ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar told Express that NASA officials had contacted the national space agency after their radar system picked-up an unknown object moving around the moon in lunar orbit.
“When we lost contact of Chandrayaan-1 during a technical snag in 2009, we knew exactly its orbit. Based on our knowledge, we have run models that will predict the spacecraft trajectory as on date and were able to say with conviction that the unknown object which NASA referred was Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.
It was a corroborated information. Without our inputs, it was impossible for NASA to confirm the identity since there is no information coming directly from the object. Our models can predict the location of the spacecraft at any given point of time after 10 years or even 100 years,” Kiran Kumar said.
He further said the spacecraft will continue to move around in the same object for hundreds of years until the natural decaying process of the orbit kicks-in and spacecraft makes impact on to the surface of the moon.
When asked what it means for ISRO, Kumar said the spotting of Chandrayaan-1 does not bring anything new to the table. “It does not have any significance because there is nothing that can be done to reestablish contact with the spacecraft. There is no power in it. Some of the solar panels that provide input to other systems onboard have snapped. So, it is just as good as any moving object in space,” he said.
The space agency is now concentrating on Chandrayaan-2 mission, which is slated for launch in 2018. ISRO Propulsion Complex Director P V Venkitakrishnan said Chandrayaan-2 project was progressing well and the throttling of engine, which is a crucial technology for soft landing of the rover, will commence in Mahendragiri from May.
Indian scientists said finding a derelict spacecraft at lunar distance that has not been tracked for years is tricky as the moon is riddled with mascons (regions with higher-than-average gravitational pull) that can affect a spacecraft’s orbit over time, and cause it to have crashed into moon.
The JPL’s orbital calculations said Chandrayaan-1 is still circling 124 miles (200 km) above the lunar surface.