 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Indian scientists hail aborted lunar mission a success
Panaji, India (AFP) Aug 30, 2009 The head of India's state-run space agency on Sunday hailed the country's first moon mission a success, despite losing contact with the spacecraft. "The mission was a great success," G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told reporters in the state capital of Goa, Panaji, where a conference on low-budget space missions opens this week. Nair, who said 95 percent of the Chandrayaan-I project's objectives had been completed, admitted scientists were disappointed with the development, but said a "large volume" of data was collected, including 70,000 images of the moon. India launched the unmanned satellite and put a probe on the moon's surface to great fanfare and national pride late last year, propelling the country into the league of space-faring nations. ISRO announced on Saturday that the 80-million-dollar project was over after losing radio contact with the satellite early on Friday, blaming a computer malfunction for cutting communications. The satellite is now likely to crash onto the moon's surface. The mission had been expected to last two years and was intended as a first step towards landing an unmanned moon rover by 2012. India also aims to launch satellites to study Mars and Venus as well as a manned space flight by 2020. Nair told a news conference that a formal inquiry into what went wrong would be launched as a matter of course to learn lessons for future projects. But he added: "We have found that all the instruments on the spacecraft worked satisfactorily and the entire scientific instruments have performed. That is how we could collect a large volume of data. "We survived for 315 days, which is a good record. Many such experiments have burnt within a month in the past." Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
India suffers blow to space ambitionsBangalore, India (AFP) Aug 29, 2009 India's first moon mission, launched amid much fanfare last year, came to an abrupt end Saturday after controllers lost contact with the country's lunar craft, the national space agency said. India launched an unmanned satellite and put a probe on the moon's surface late last year in an event that the national space agency hoped would give the country international "brand recognition" in the ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook