Archive for September, 2019
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September 7th, 2019
Credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space Screengrab
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has issued a September 7th update on the fate of the country’s Vikram lunar lander:
“Chandrayaan-2 mission was a highly complex mission, which represented a significant technological leap compared to the previous missions of ISRO, which brought together an Orbiter, Lander and Rover to explore the unexplored south pole of the Moon.
Since the launch of Chandrayaan-2 on July 22, 2019, not only India but the whole world watched its progress from one phase to the next with great expectations and excitement.
This was a unique mission which aimed at studying not just one area of the Moon but all the areas combining the exosphere, the surface as well as the sub-surface of the moon in a single mission.
India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter is loaded with scientific gear.
Credit: ISRO
The Orbiter has already been placed in its intended orbit around the Moon and shall enrich our understanding of the moon’s evolution and mapping of the minerals and water molecules in the Polar Regions, using its eight state-of-the-art scientific instruments.
The Orbiter camera is the highest resolution camera (0.3m) in any lunar mission so far and shall provide high resolution images which will be immensely useful to the global scientific community. The precise launch and mission management has ensured a long life of almost 7 years instead of the planned one year.
ISRO chief Kailasavadivoo Sivan announcing loss of signal with Vikram lander.
Credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space Screengrab
The Vikram Lander followed the planned descent trajectory from its orbit of 35 km to just below 2 km above the surface. All the systems and sensors of the Lander functioned excellently until this point and proved many new technologies such as variable thrust propulsion technology used in the Lander.
The success criteria was defined for each and every phase of the mission and till date 90 to 95% of the mission objectives have been accomplished and will continue contribute to Lunar science, notwithstanding the loss of communication with the Lander.”
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ISRO chief Kailasavadivoo Sivan announcing loss of signal with Vikram lander.
Credit: ISRO
India’s mission control lost communications with its Chandrayaan-2 lunar lander at roughly 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometers) from its lunar touchdown.
The true fate of the Vikram lander carrying the Pragyan rover is being reviewed by engineers at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi comforts ISRO leader.
Credit: ISRO
Under investigation
“The communications from the lander to ground station was lost. The data is being analyzed,” said ISRO chief Kailasavadivoo Sivan. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at mission control in the southern city of Bangalore.
What occurred during the Vikram lander’s powered descent remains under investigation.
Credit: ISRO
Orbiter capabilities
Meanwhile, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is circling the Moon, with an expected mission life of one year. It is toting an array of scientific instruments that promises to reveal the Moon from on-high, given a 100 x 100 kilometer lunar polar orbit.
The orbiter instruments are:
— Terrain Mapping Camera 2 (TMC 2)
— Chandrayaan 2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS)
— Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM)
— Orbiter High Resolution Camera (OHRC)
— Imaging IR Spectrometer (IIRS)
— Dual Frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (DFSAR)
India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter is loaded with scientific gear.
Credit: ISRO
On-high investigations
The orbiter’s TMC 2 is a miniature version of the Terrain Mapping Camera used onboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission. Its primary objective is mapping the lunar surface to provide clues about the Moon’s evolution and help prepare 3D maps of the lunar surface.
Meanwhile, the OHRC is built to provide high-resolution images of the Vikram lander’s touchdown site, powerful enough to detect any craters or boulders in the landing area. The images it captures, taken from two different look angles, will serve several purposes. For one, they can be used to generate DEMs (Digital Elevation Models) of the landing site.
The dual frequency (L and S) SAR will provide enhanced capabilities to provide high-resolution lunar mapping in the polar regions; quantitative estimation of water-ice in the polar regions; and help estimate regolith thickness and its distribution.
If the ISRO Chandrayaan-2 lander/rover indeed cratered, the mission’s orbiter is in position and in good health to generate significant lunar science.
Credit: Air Force Space Command
The Air Force Space Command hosted a Space Futures Workshop (SFW) to explore the role of space to the year 2060.
Key workshop conclusions reached were:
- The U.S. must recognize that in 2060, space will be a major engine of national political, economic, and military power for whichever nations best organize and operate to exploit that potential.
- The U.S. faces growing competition from allies, rivals, and adversaries for leadership in the exploration and exploitation of space.
- China is executing a long-term civil, commercial, and military strategy to explore and economically develop the cislunar domain with the explicit aim of displacing the U.S. as the leading space power. Other nations are developing similar national strategies.
- A failure to remain a leading space power will place U.S. national power at risk. To avert this, the U.S. coalition must promote and optimize the combined civil, military, and commercial exploitation of space to best serves the nation’s interests.
- The U.S. military must define and execute its role in promoting, exploiting, and defending the expanded military, civil, and commercial U.S. activities and human presence in space.
Credit: U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. David Salanitri
Thought leaders
The SFW was conducted at the U.S. Air Force Academy over three days, with 52 senior scientists, decision makers, leaders, and professors participating.
Participants were from the Air Force Air University, the Air Force Space Command, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Defense Innovation Unit, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, industry, federally funded research and development corporations, and academia.
The Air Force Space Command issued on September 5th a report — The Future of Space 2060 and Implications for U.S. Strategy: Report on the Space Futures Workshop – and can be viewed by going to this Politico.com site:
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000016d-0513-d6ab-a97f-4f93520b0001
Credit: JPL
The ability to transmit energy over long distances without wires — known as “power beaming” — has been getting second looks + both in the U.S. and abroad.
To this point, the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has issued a Request For Information (RFI) seeking inputs for how best “to implement a demonstration of a power beaming capability that is safe for users and bystanders,” and that delivers on an ongoing basis at least one kilowatt (kW) at a distance of at least one kilometer.
Peter Glaser, the father of the solar power satellite concept.
Credit: Arthur D. Little Inc.
History machine
Turning on the history machine, the idea of wireless power transmission began with Nikola Tesla near the end of the nineteenth century.
Then in 1968, the concept of a solar power satellite was detailed by U.S. space pioneer, Peter Glaser. It would harvest energy from sunlight using solar cells and beam it down to Earth as microwaves to receiving antennas (rectennas), which would convert those microwaves to electrical energy on the electric power grid.
Jump to the mid-1970s microwave power transmission experiments in the tens of kilowatts were conducted at the JPL Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California.
Power beaming from space to Earth is attracting technologists.
Credit: John Mankins
Moon powersat
In more recent times, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) announced in 2015 it had conducted ground demonstration testing of wireless power transmission to serve as the core technology of space solar power systems “that are expected to be the power generation systems of the future.”
Over the years, power beaming from the Moon to the Earth has been advocated.
Earlier this year, at a Colorado School of Mines Space Resources meeting, using a space solar power satellite as an alternative power strategy for supporting lunar operations, was advocated by Michael Hecht of the MIT Haystack Observatory and Phil Lubin of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Defense purposes
In the NRL RFI solicitation of August 30, it’s noted that power beaming interest by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and others, have gained “momentum, currency, and recognition.”
For defense purposes, the RFI states that a number of application areas are of immediate interest: swarming, teamed, and individual autonomous air, ground, and sea vehicles, off board countermeasures, unattended ground and sea sensors, explosive ordnance disposal, and camp/convoy/port/fleet security.
“These cover a range of mission areas, including providing communications, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. They are applicable in numerous military contexts, such as forward operating bases, combat outposts, landing parties, fleet operations, and distributed sensor networks. Power beaming can also be used to enhance energy harvesting or traditional solar energy collection,” the RFI explains.
Perhaps this new look at power beaming will breathe new life into both Earth and space settings?
To view the Power Beaming – Request for Information Solicitation, go to:
https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DON/ONR/N00173/N00173-19-RFI-AL06/listing.html
Credit: ISRO
A nine-second de-orbiting maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (September 04, 2019) beginning at 0342 hrs India Standard Time (IST) as planned, using the onboard propulsion system.
The completion of this maneuver has placed the Vikram lander into the required orbit for it to commence its descent toward the surface of the Moon.
Credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space Screengrab
The orbit of the lunar lander is now 22 x 63 miles (35 x 101 kilometers).
Meanwhile, the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter continues to circle the Moon in an orbit of 60 x 78 miles (96 x 125 kilometers).
Both the orbiter and lander are healthy, reports the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Powered descent
The lander is scheduled to begin its powered descent between 0100 – 0200 hrs IST on September 07, 2019, which is then followed by touchdown of the Vikram lander between 0130 – 0230 hrs IST (between 4 and 5 p.m. U.S. Eastern, Sept. 6).
Chandrayaan-2 landing site in the highland plain between the craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N. Simpelius N crater is about 6 miles (9 kilometers) across.
Source: LROC Quickmap
Credit: Jatan Mehta/Moon Monday
The lander is targeted to plop down near the Moon’s south pole.
Given a successful touchdown by the lander, weighing 3,243 pounds (1,471 kilograms), its onboard Pragyan rover, weighing 60 pounds (27 kilograms), is to roll out onto the lunar surface between 5:30 am to 6:30 am.
The 6-wheeled rover can travel up to 1,640 feet (500 meters) from the landing spot on the Moon.
Credit: ISRO
Experiments
Onboard the Vikram lander is a Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA). This experiment is to measure factors such as ambient electron density/temperature near the lunar surface. Also, this experiment can provide a temporal evolution of lunar plasma density for the first time near the surface under varying solar conditions.
NASA-supplied Laser Retroreflector Array.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Chandra’s Surface Thermo-physical Experiment (ChaSTE) is to measure the vertical temperature gradient and thermal conductivity of the lunar surface.
Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) is a Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based seismometer that can detect minute ground displacement, velocity, or acceleration caused by lunar quakes.
Also onboard the lander is a NASA-supplied Laser Retroreflector Array to understand the dynamics of Earth’s Moon system and also derive clues on the lunar interior.
Credit: ISRO
The rover carries an Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) to determine the elemental composition of the Moon’s surface near the landing site.
A Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) is to identify and determine the abundance of elements near the landing site.
Credit: U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. David Salanitri
The Air Force Space Command is set to conduct the 13th Schriever Wargame at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
The Wargame scenario is set in the year 2029 and will explore critical space issues and examine the integration activities of multiple agencies associated with space systems and services.
Starting on September 4th, roughly 350 military and civilian experts from more than 27 commands and agencies around the country, as well as four international partners — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, as well as the United States.
Credit: U.S. Space Command
Wargame objectives
According to the Air Force Space Command, this iteration of the wargame is centered on the following objectives:
- Inform people, processes, and technologies to advance the United States Space Command’s (USSPACECOM) joint/combined operational missions.
- Explore opportunities and challenges of national, commercial, and coalition architectures to synchronize effects that protect and defend the space enterprise.
- Examine unity of command/effort to seamlessly integrate space operations and authorities across multiple classification and organizational levels.
- Advance shared understanding of responsible behaviors in the space domain and impacts on national and coalition decision-making, and
- Investigate whole-of-government(s) and coalition options to control escalation across all domains.
Notional space architecture.
Credit: Space Development Agency
Notional peer competitor
The scenario depicts a notional peer competitor seeking to achieve strategic goals by exploiting multi-domain operations.
Additionally, the scenario will also include a full spectrum of threats across diverse, multi-domain operating environments to challenge civilian and military leaders, planners and space system operators, as well as the capabilities they employ.
The Schriever Wargame 19 team will conduct this wargame on behalf of Air Force Space Command, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Credit: ISRO
The fifth and final lunar bound orbit maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (September 01, 2019) beginning at 1821 hrs India Standard Time (IST) as planned, using the onboard propulsion system.
Credit: ISRO
The duration of the maneuver was 52 seconds. The orbit achieved is 74 x 79 miles (119 x 127 kilometers). All spacecraft parameters are normal, reports the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space Screengrab
Lander separation
The next operation is the separation of the Vikram Lander from the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter, which is scheduled on September 02, 2019, between 1245 – 1345 hrs (IST).
Following this, there will be two deorbit maneuvers of Vikram to prepare for its landing in the south polar region of the Moon.
Credit: ISRO/Inside Outer Space Screengrab
Touchdown time line
Tentative plan for future operations after today’s maneuver are as follows, according to the ISRO:
- Vikram Separation September 2, 2019; 12:45 – 13:45 IST
- Deorbit 1: September 3, 2019; 09:00 – 10:00; 109 x 120 kilometers
- Deorbit 2: September 4, 2019; 03:00 – 04:00; 36 x 110 kilometers
- Powered Descent: September 07, 2019; Vikram Touchdown; September 07, 2019; 01:30 – 02:30 IST
The Vikram Lander of Chandrayaan 2 is named after Dr Vikram A. Sarabhai, the Father of the Indian Space Program. It is designed to function for one lunar day, which is equivalent to about 14 Earth days.
