Post Date
August,
23
2024
Author: Rashmi Sheoran | Instagram: astro_roxy
Remember the buzz when Mangalyaan, India's first interplanetary mission, reached the Red Planet in 2014?
Picture this: a team of dedicated scientists and engineers huddled around screens at ISRO's mission control. As Mangalyaan's signals confirmed its successful Mars orbit insertion, the room erupted in cheers and tears of joy. India had done it - on its very first attempt and at a fraction of the cost of similar missions. A moment of national pride.
ISRO scientists celebrating the Mars Orbiter Mission launch. Image credits: PTI/ Shailendra
1. Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) (2014-2022)
The Mars Orbiter Mission wasn’t just a big technological feat for ISRO but a science mission that studied the red planet for more than seven years. Some of the things it discovered are:
1. It detected Argon-40 atoms in Mars' upper atmosphere, an excellent tracer for studying atmospheric loss processes on Mars. As a noble gas, it doesn't react chemically with other elements, so changes in its abundance directly reflect escape to space
2. It found that Mars' atmosphere changes from mostly carbon dioxide to mostly oxygen as altitude increases. This transition occurs around 270-275 km above the surface, giving us insights into Mars' upper atmosphere structure.
3. It studied Martian dust storms, which affect the operations of any spacecraft there. With Mangalyaan’s data, Scientists can estimate the atmospheric optical depth during dust storms, giving valuable data on how these events affect visibility and solar radiation reaching the Martian surface.
Mars, as photographed by the Mars Orbiter Mission. Active dust storms can be spotted in the northern hemisphere. Image Credits: ISRO/ISSDC/Kevin M. Gill
You can find some more images of Mars here, captured by the Mars Color Camera onboard the orbiter, which shows features such as craters, valleys, dunes, and ice caps.
ISRO plans to launch Mangalyaan 2 in 2024 with an upgraded orbiter, a rover, a helicopter, a sky crane and a supersonic parachute!!
2. The Chandrayaan Missions
- Chandrayaan-1 (2008-2009):
This was India's first mission to the Moon. It orbited the Moon and studied it from above for about ten months. The mission carried instruments from India and other countries, making it a big international project.
It made headlines when it discovered water molecules and hydroxyl (OH) on the Moon's surface. The water was found mainly near the poles, where some areas are always in shadow. This was an important discovery that was followed up upon in future missions.
The mission also found evidence that the Moon was once entirely melted, like a giant ball of lava. This helps us understand how the Moon formed. Scientists call this the "Lunar Magma Ocean" hypothesis, and data collected from NASA Instrument Moon Mineralogy Mapper aboard the orbiter supported this idea.
Chandrayaan-1 also imaged a lunar rille formed by an ancient lunar lava flow, with an uncollapsed segment indicating the presence of a large cave below the lunar surface. According to A. S. Arya, a scientist at the Space Application Centre, this could be a potential site for human settlement on the Moon, safe from solar radiation.
A. S. Arya's paper, “Detection of potential site for future human habitability on the Moon using Chandrayaan-1 data", showing the 3D view of the rille.
- Chandrayaan-2 (2019-Present):
This mission sent another orbiter to circle the Moon. The mission was also one of the firsts where ISRO had opened its newly built Viewers' Gallery outside the Sriharikota launch site. Thousands had gathered to watch the Chandrayaan-2 launch in person (including me - hey!)
The crowd at Launch View Gallery during the Chandrayaan 2 launch. Image credits: Adithya Kothandhapani
Along with the orbiter, the mission also carried a lander and rover. While its lander couldn't land safely, the orbiter is still working and sending back information. It was designed to last for one year but has enough fuel to keep working for seven years!
The mission studies the thin layer of gases around the Moon called an exosphere. And on the lunar surface, it detected elements like chromium and manganese using remote sensing. This helps scientists understand what the Moon is made of, how it interacts with space, and how it might have formed.
The Orbiter high-resolution camera (OHRC) in Chandrayaan 2 can capture images with a ground sampling distance of just 0.25 meters from its 100 km orbit, making it one of the highest-resolution cameras ever sent to the Moon.
The surface of the Moon captured by OHRC Image Credits: ISRO
OHRC had played a crucial role in Japan's Moon mission, SLIM, from site selection to landing confirmation. Its detailed imagery aided SLIM's attempt at a precise landing within a 100m x 100m area. This collaboration showcases the growing partnership between ISRO and JAXA, demonstrating how shared resources and expertise can significantly advance lunar exploration capabilities.
The Chandrayaan 2 orbiter also observes the Sun. Its high-resolution Solar X-ray Monitor (XSM) studies solar flares and provides a reference for its X-ray Spectrometer, which maps elements on the Moon’s surface.
- Chandrayaan-3 (2023):
This mission successfully landed near the Moon's south pole, making India the first country to do so! It touched down on August 23, 2023, and explored the area around its landing site for 14 days.
Vikram Lander on the Moon. Image Credits: ISRO
So, what exactly did Chandrayaan-3 discover on the Moon? Well, for starters, it found that the Moon's surface is much hotter than we thought - about 70 degrees Celsius, much higher than the expected 20-30 degrees. It also discovered that lunar soil is a good insulator. The temperature drops by 60°C just 8 cm below the surface! If you want to build your house on the Moon, it better be underneath the surface.
Like the past Chandrayaan missions, this mission confirmed the presence of new elements like sulfur in the Moon's soil near the south pole, a finding that was previously unconfirmed through remote sensing techniques. It also detected aluminum, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon, and oxygen.
Each Chandrayaan mission is built on knowledge from previous ones, which helps us understand our lunar neighbor better. There’s news of Chandrayaan 4, designed as a lunar sample-return mission, aiming to collect rocks and soil from the Moon's surface and bring them back to Earth for scientific analysis.
3. Aditya-L1 Mission
Aditya-L1 is India's first spacecraft sent to study the Sun. The spacecraft is placed in a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth system's Lagrange point 1 (L1), about 1.5 million km from the Earth. It was launched on September 2, 2023, and the mission is expected to last at least five years.
Aditya L1 on the Launch pad at SHAR aboard the PSLV-C57 rocket. Image Credits: ISRO
This spacecraft has seven scientific payloads to study the solar corona, solar wind, to image the sun in near-ultraviolet, among other objectives.
Its special camera, SUIT, recently captured the Sun using ultraviolet light. SUIT uses 11 different filters to take pictures; this helps scientists understand different parts of the Sun's atmosphere. You can find a few of those images below:
Image Credits: ISRO
4. Astrosat
AstroSat, India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory, has made some incredible discoveries since its launch in 2015. Unlike most space telescopes that look at the universe in just one type of light, AstroSat can see ultraviolet, visible, and X-ray light all at the same time, hence termed a multi-wavelength observatory. Here are three of its most exciting findings:
1. It detected extreme ultraviolet light from a galaxy called AUDFs01, 9.3 billion light-years away! Remarkably, this faint emission wasn't detected even by the Hubble Space Telescope, highlighting AstroSat's unique capabilities. The discovery has sparked international interest, leading to a new collaboration with the European Southern Observatory.
2. It took a detailed look at our nearest big galaxy neighbor, Andromeda, and found young stars in parts of the galaxy where we didn't expect to see them. This survey also created a massive catalog of over 75,000 stars in Andromeda, giving astronomers a treasure trove of data to study. Andromeda galaxy in the night sky.
Image credits: SkySafari App/ Ron Brecher
3. It studied a galaxy called OJ287, which is thought to have two supermassive black holes. By looking at it in both ultraviolet and X-ray light simultaneously, AstroSat helped explain how this galaxy produces its intense radiation.
5. XPoSat
Finally, we have come to XPoSat! The acronym stands for X-ray Polarimeter Satellite. It is India's latest space observatory, launched on January 1, 2024. It's a big deal because it makes India only the second country worldwide to have a dedicated X-ray polarimetry mission! XPoSat's primary instrument, POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays), first looked at the famous Crab Pulsar in a new wavelength range between January 15-18, 2024. The Crab Pulsar is a super dense, rapidly spinning star at the heart of the Crab Nebula, spinning about 30 times every second! The instrument successfully created a "pulse profile" of the Crab Pulsar.
Crab pulsar residing at the center of Crab Nebula Image Credits: NASA/STScI
The other XPoSat instrument, XSPECT, is also ready to start its observations. Together, these instruments will help scientists understand some of the universe's most extreme environments (around black holes and neutron stars).
Behind these missions are the brilliant minds and tireless efforts of ISRO's scientists and engineers. Take Mangalyaan, for instance. When the planned rocket wasn't ready, the team devised a clever "slingshot" trajectory using Earth's gravity to fling the spacecraft towards Mars.
The Chandrayaan 3 team recently received the International Aeronautical Federation’s most prestigious World Space Award 2024. IAF wrote, ‘The CY3 team exemplifies the synergy of scientific curiosity and cost-effective engineering, symbolizes India's commitment to excellence and the vast potential that space exploration offers humanity.’
Chandrayaan 3 team after the successful touchdown of Vikram Lander. Image Credits: ISRO
The excitement of Chandrayaan 3 was like none other - its landing livestream broke YouTube records with over 8 million concurrent viewers!
As we look to the future, there are plans to send more interplanetary missions and Indian astronauts to space with the Gaganyaan program. So, the next time you gaze up at the night sky, remember - there might just be an Indian spacecraft out there, unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos, one mission at a time.
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