High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom Vikram Doraiswami addressing members of the Indian Diaspora during a meeting with Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar (unseen), in London on Saturday. (ANI Photo/Shrikant Singh)
New Delhi’s envoy to the UK said that funding that continues to flow to India is only to non-governmental entities selected directly and solely by the UK Government.
Clearing the air over recent articles in the media over a developing country like India “wasting” money on space, India’s High Commissioner to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, has said that funding that continues to flow to India is only to non-governmental entities selected directly and solely by the UK Government.
Thanking the goodwill that has been pouring in from the UK, Doraiswami in a comment published in The Telegraph said that India’s third moon-shot mission – Chandrayaan-3 – which touched down on the moon’s south pole last week, was a culmination of human dreams collected over the ages.
“Space exploration inspires us because it is genuinely exciting to see mankind’s boundaries being extended. And so the excitement in India and the outpouring of goodwill from thousands in the UK – including dignitaries speaking for His Majesty’s Government – has been hugely heartwarming,” the High Commissioner said.
Welcoming the bilateral and plurilateral partnership with the UK to collective global goals, Doraiswami said the aid received was essentially an effort to support Sustainable Development Goals, or promote UK business in India, through actors of the UK’s own choice. “(So) the benefit and beneficiaries of this spending are in line with your own political priorities, and not at our request,” he said.
The High Commissioner added, “Looking at the sums required to ensure, for instance, sustainable energy transitions in a country of India’s size, the actual amount of funds being so disbursed is also genuinely small. At best, it could help catalyse large doses of funding through public-private partnerships.”
‘Moon mission cheaper than Avengers: Endgame’
Doraiswami said that India’s space programme is a value-for-money proposition. He added that the current moon mission had a programme budget of $75 million. Even if there were overruns, it is well below what was spent on the Hollywood film Avengers: Endgame, which reportedly had a budget of $356 million.
“Our space programme also delivers hugely valuable developmental services. As prime minister Modi said at our space headquarters in Bengaluru on August 26, more than space exploration, data from the space programme has been directly used by farmers, fishing communities, water departments, meteorologists, and now for the design and monitoring of infrastructure projects. Our indigenously built satellites have provided India with state-of-the-art remote sensing services for all these needs, as well as communications support for education and healthcare, well before the internet became ubiquitous.”
The High Commissioner said that India’s space programme had launched 389 satellites, earning some £320 million over the past nine years. While space earns revenue and saves India money, its has also managed to lift more than 450 million people out of multidimensional poverty since 2006. In certifying this, the UN Development Programme noted that, in this same period, incidence of poverty fell from 55 per cent of the population to 16 per cent; the proportion of people with lack of access to electricity fell from 24 to 2 per cent; sanitation deprivation fell from 50 to 11 per cent; and lack of potable water access fell from 16 to 3 per cent. In short, deprivation rates fell in every sector, and in every region.
Nearly two decades later, as the head of ISRO, Somanath seems to have set right the issues that resulted in the crash landing of India’s first moon lander called Vikram…reports Asian Lite News
They were all men in the Chandrayaan-3 mission and they were confident of soft landing the country’s moon lander on the lunar soil, a ‘Mission Possible’ after the failure of Chandrayaan-2.
Incidentally, unlike the Chandrayaan-2 mission, where a couple of women were in a lead role — with Project Director M. Vanitha and Mission Director Ritu Karidhal Srivastava — this time around it was an all male club.
In Chandrayaan-3, the Mission Director was Mohan Kumar and the Vehicle/Rocket Director was Biju C. Thomas.
“There are about 54 female engineers/scientists who worked directly in the Chandrayaan-3 mission. They are associate and deputy project directors and project managers of various systems working at different centres,” a senior official of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had told IANS preferring anonymity.
Well, the Men in Chandrayaan-3 are as follows:
Dr. S. Somanath, Chairman, ISRO
Most of the Hindu names signify a God. In the case of S. Somanath, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the name means Master of the Moon.
Incidentally, it was his responsibility to see India’s moon lander soft lands successfully on Wednesday evening.
As a young engineer, Somanath dared to set right an anomaly along with two of his seniors in a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that was ready for a takeoff.
Normally in such a situation, the rocket launch would have been postponed, draining the fuel and other laborious processes. The other option was trying to set the problem right, when the rocket is fueled up-a risky proposition.
However, the three brave officials including the young Somanath set right the problem. The rocket lifted off safely and made the mission a success.
Nearly two decades later, as the head of ISRO, Somanath seems to have set right the issues that resulted in the crash landing of India’s first moon lander called Vikram.
Son of a Hindi teacher, Somanath was interested in science. Later he pursued B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering but had an active interest in rocketry.
Like a dream come true, in 1985 Somanath got a job with ISRO and joined the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, which was responsible for rockets.
Somanath took his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from TKM College of Engineering, Kollam and Masters in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore with specialisation in Structures, Dynamics and Control.
Rising up the ranks, he joined GSLV MkIII Project during 2003 and was the Deputy Project Director responsible for overall design and integration of India’s heaviest and most powerful rocket. He was the Project Director of GSLV Mk-III (now LVM-3) from June 2010 to 2014.
Somanath also led the team of LPSC (ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre) to complete the development and qualification of CE20 cryogenic engine and the C25 stage, which was successfully flown in GSLV MkIII-D1 flight.
Prior to becoming ISRO Chairman, Somanath headed VSSC as its Director.
Dr. S. Unnikrishnan Nair, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
He is a Distinguished Scientist heading the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) – India’s rocket centre – as well as a Malayalam short story writer.
Dr. S. Unnikrishnan, is a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Kerala University, ME in Aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology-Madras.
That apart, he also holds an MA in Telecommunications and Space Law from NALSAR, Hyderabad.
Unnikrishan began his career in VSSC in 1985 and was involved in the development of various aerospace systems and mechanisms for Indian rockets – PSLV, GSLV and LVM3.
He played a key role in the maiden orbital re-entry experiment, Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE), right from the study phase onwards to its mission accomplishment in 2007.
He was associated with Human Spaceflight Programme from its study phase since 2004 and was the Project director for Pre-project technology development activities.
Unnikrishnan led the project team for defining the Vehicle configuration, Systems engineering and in identifying various critical technology development areas to initiate the pre-project activities.
As founding Director of the youngest Centre in ISRO, the Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) Unnikrishnan has led the team for Gaganyaan Project and established the Astronaut Training Centre at Bangalore in HSFC at Bangalore.
Dr. P. Veeramuthuvel, Project Director, Chandrayaan-3
Son of a railway employee, Dr. P. Veeramuthuvel always aimed for the skies. Hailing from Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district, Veeramuthuvel completed his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and went on to get a Degree in Engineering. Later he did his PhD at IIT-Madras. He joined ISRO in 2014.
M. Shankaran, Director, U R Rao Satellite Centre
A Distinguished Scientist M. Shankaran took over as Director of U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), the lead Centre in the country for design, development and realisation of all satellites of ISRO, on June 1, 2021.
He is currently leading satellite fraternity to realise various types of satellites to meet the national requirements in the areas like communication, navigation, remote sensing, meteorology and inter-planetary exploration.
During his 35 years of experience in URSC/ISRO, he has contributed primarily in the areas of Solar arrays, Power systems, Satellite Positioning System and RF communication systems for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites, Geostationary Satellites, Navigation Satellites and Outer Space Missions like Chandrayaan, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) and others.
He is now leading the efforts to the miniaturisation of avionics systems, indigenisation of electronics & power system components, micro/mini satellite bus development and others. He is also spearheading the avionics system design, realisation and qualification for the Gaganyaan Programme.
He joined the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), currently known as URSC after obtaining his Master’s degree in Physics from Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli in 1986.
Dr. V. Narayanan, Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre
He is the man providing the propulsion power to Indian rockets. Dr V.Narayanan, an Alumni of Indian Institute of Technology- Kharagpur and has taken his M.Tech with First Rank in Cryogenic Engineering in 1989 and Ph.D in Aerospace Engineering in 2001.
A rocket propulsion expert Narayanan joined ISRO in 1984 and functioned in various capacities before becoming Director of the Centre. As Project Director for C25 Cryogenic Project, he led the team and successfully developed C25 Cryogenic Stage.
When India was denied the complex Cryogenic Propulsion Technology for GSLV Mk-II vehicle, Narayanan played a crucial role in the successful development of Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) and contributed in making it operational for the GSLV Mk II vehicle.
He has guided the team and designed a 200-tonne thrust Lox-Kerosene Semi Cryogenic Rocket Engine.
During the initial period from 1984 to 1988 in ISRO, he also contributed to the Solid Propulsion System realisation for launch vehicles. As Associate Director of LPSC, he was guiding the liquid propulsion activities of ISRO and was instrumental in finalising the Liquid Propulsion Roadmap of ISRO for the next 20 years.
A. Rajarajan, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre
He first joined the India’s rocket centre – Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and over the years risen through the ranks and is now heading the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) that provides the solid fuel for the rocket and also the country’s rocket port in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
A Mechanical Engineer, Rajarajan joined VSSC’s Fiber Reinforced Plastics Division and over the years grew within the organisation and assumed additional challenges.
“India is on the moon!” Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is currently attending the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg said
It was a giant leap for India on Wednesday evening as the Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully landed on the moon’s South Pole, making it the first country to have achieved the historic feat and bringing to an end the disappointment over the crash landing of the Chandrayaan-2, four years ago.
Officials at India’s space agency ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru broke into applause after the Vikram began its powered vertical descent towards its landing site.
“India is on the moon!” Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is currently attending the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg said. He watched the live telecast and as soon as the touchdown happened he sported a big smile and waved the tricolour.
The countdown of the Vikram hovered at 150 metres, then 130 metres, 50 metres and decelerated as approached the moon’s service before finally touching down on the lunar surface.
As the Vikram lander carrying the Pragyaan rover in its belly touched down on the lunar surface, it marked a giant leap in India’s spacefaring journey providing a well-deserved finale to ISRO’s long years of toil.
This makes India becomes the fourth country – after US, China, and Russia – to have successfully landed on the moon’s surface, it has earned a place in record books as the first to touchdown on the south side of Earth’s only natural satellite.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission: 'India🇮🇳, I reached my destination and you too!' : Chandrayaan-3
Chandrayaan-3 has successfully soft-landed on the moon 🌖!.
Billions of people across India and globally closely monitoring the much-awaited event. More so after Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft crashed on Sunday after spinning out of control.
In the run-up to the scheduled soft landing of Chandrayaan-3, people across the country prayed to God in all denominations of places of worship for a successful mission.
Special screenings of the soft landing were organized across the country, including schools and science centers, and public institutions. ISRO made the live actions available on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV.
The scheduled timing for the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the moon’s south pole on August 23, 2023 (Wednesday), was 18:04 IST, with the powered descent of Vikram lander at 1745 IST.
ISRO had been releasing a series of up-close images of the moon, assisting the lander module in determining its position (latitude and longitude) by matching them against an onboard moon reference map.
Historically, spacecraft missions to the Moon have primarily targeted the equatorial region due to its favourable terrain and operating conditions. However, the lunar south pole presents a vastly different and more challenging terrain compared to the equatorial region.
Historic day for India's space sector. Congratulations to @isro for the remarkable success of Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission. https://t.co/F1UrgJklfp
The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14.
A GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle was used for the launch of the spacecraft that was placed in the lunar orbit on August 5 and since then it was through a series of orbital manoeuvres been lowered closer to the moon’s surface.
Ever since the July 14 launch, ISRO had been maintaining that the health of the spacecraft remained “normal”.
On August 5, Chandrayaan-3 was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit with multiple key manoeuvres thereafter.
Then on August 17, the mission marked another giant leap in its lunar quest as the ‘Vikram’ lander module of the spacecraft successfully separated from the propulsion module on Thursday. The Chandrayaan-3 mission’s lander is named after Vikram Sarabhai (1919–1971), who is widely regarded as the father of the Indian space programme.
Then the deboosting of the Lander module was undertaken in two phases. Deboosting is the process of slowing down to position itself in an orbit where the orbit’s closest point to the Moon is.
The stated objectives of Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, were safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, the rover moving on the moon’s surface, and in-situ scientific experiments.
Upon landing, the lander and the rover were to operate for one lunar day. One day on the Moon is equal to 14 days on Earth.
Chandrayaan-3’s development phase commenced in January 2020, with the launch planned sometime in 2021.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought an unforeseen delay to the mission’s progress. The approved cost of Chandrayaan-3 is Rs 250 crores (excluding launch vehicle cost).
Chandrayaan-2 mission was only “partially successful” since the lander lost contact after a hard landing, but the ISRO earlier this week successfully established two-way communication between the Chandrayaan-3 lander module and the still orbiting Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) founder Vikram Sarabhai, who is considered the father of the Indian space program, once said India must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems facing society.
The establishment of the ISRO was one of Vikram Sarabhai’s greatest achievements. He successfully convinced the government of the day of the importance of a space programme for a developing country like India. (ANI)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in a tweet, said: “MOX, ISTRAC, this is Chandrayaan-3, I am feeling lunar gravity.”
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday evening successfully injected the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft into the lunar orbit, an official said.
According to the official, the firing of the onboard motors began at about 7.15 p.m. and the spacecraft was steered towards the moon orbit.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in a tweet, said: “MOX, ISTRAC, this is Chandrayaan-3, I am feeling lunar gravity.”
“Chandrayaan-3 has been successfully inserted into the lunar orbit.A retro-burning at the Perilune was commanded from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC, Bengaluru.The next operation – reduction of orbit – is scheduled for Aug 6, 2023, around 23:00 Hrs. IST.”
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was put into orbit on July 14 in a copybook style by India’s heavy lift rocket LVM3.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission: “MOX, ISTRAC, this is Chandrayaan-3. I am feeling lunar gravity 🌖” 🙂
Chandrayaan-3 has been successfully inserted into the lunar orbit.
A retro-burning at the Perilune was commanded from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC, Bengaluru.
The spacecraft comprises a propulsion module (weighing 2,148 kg), a lander (1,723.89 kg), and a rover (26 kg). The main object of the mission is to safely send the lander onto the lunar soil. The lander will get separated from the propulsion module a couple of days and later expected to make a soft-landing near the South Pole of the moon on August 23 evening at 5.47 p.m.
The lander will descend to the moon from a height of about 100 km from the moon’s surface. The soft landing is a tricky issue as it involves a series of complex manoeuvres consisting of rough and fine braking. Imaging of the landing site region prior to landing will be done for finding safe and hazard-free zones.
Subsequent to the soft landing, the six-wheeled rover will roll out and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day which is equal to 14 earth days. On August 1, Chandrayaan-3 completed orbiting around the earth and headed towards the moon. On that day a successful perigee-firing performed at ISTRAC, ISRO has injected the spacecraft into the translunar orbit.
India’s ‘Bahubali’ rocket LVM3 lifts off with Chandrayaan-3, India’s third moon mission, from Sriharikota, reports VENKATACHARI JAGANNATHAN
India’s heavy lift rocket-LVM3 carrying the 3,897.89 kg Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft blasted off from the Sriharikota spaceport on Friday afternoon.
At about 2.35 p.m. the LVM3 rocket breaking free from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) here began ascending towards the skies with a strong deep growl that reverberated like a thunder roll.
The 43.5 metre tall rocket weighing about 642 ton furiously rushed towards the skies with thick orange flame leaving behind an anaconda like long and thick white smoke.
The rocket is nicknamed as `Bahubali’ as like the well built hero in the successful film lifting a heavy Lingam, the rocket carries the 3.8-tonne Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.
Just over 16 minutes into its flight, the rocket will sling the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into lunar polar orbit.
From there it will be a long journey for Chandrayaan-3 as the distance between the earth and the moon is about 3.844 lakh km.
The Indian space agency will raise the spacecraft by a series of manoeuvres to put it on Lunar Transfer Trajectory.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprises a propulsion module (weighing 2,148 kg), a lander (1,723.89 kg) and a rover (26 kg), the ISRO said.
Incidentally, the Chandrayaan-2 payload also weighed about 3.8 ton with the orbiter weighing 2,379 kg, the Vikram lander 1,444 kg, including the Pragyan rover 27 kg.
During the Chandrayaan-2 mission ISRO had named the lander as Vikram in memory of country’s space pioneer Vikram Sarabhai and rover Pragyan means wisdom in Sanskrit.
But this time around, ISRO has not officially named the lander and the rover.
Be that as it may, ISRO said the propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.
The lander payloads are: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations.
A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.
On the other hand, the rover will carry: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site, ISRO said.
The Indian space agency said, the moon mission is divided into three phases – the earth centric phase (Pre-Launch, Launch and Ascent and Earth-bound Manoeuvre), the Lunar Transfer Phase (Transfer Trajectory), and the Moon Centric Phase (Lunar Orbit Insertion Phase, Moon-bound Manoeuvre Phase, Propulsion Module and Lunar Module Separation, De-boost Phase, Pre-landing Phase, Landing Phase, Normal Phase for Lander and Rover, Moon Centric Normal Orbit Phase -100 km circular orbit- for Propulsion Module).
During the first phase, the LVM3 rocket will carry the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft to space.
Till date, the LVM3 rocket has an impeccable record of six consecutive successful missions. This is the fourth operational flight of LVM3, and aims to launch the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft to Geo Transfer Orbit (GTO).
The lander will get separated from the propulsion module a couple of days after it enters lunar orbit and is expected to make a soft-landing near the South Pole of the moon on August 23 or 24.
The lander will descend to the moon from a height of about 100 km from the moon’s surface.
The soft landing is a tricky issue as it involves a series of complex manoeuvres consisting of rough and fine braking.
Chandrayaan-3 mission: Spacecraft lifts off successfully from Sriharikota
Imaging of the landing site region prior to landing will be done for finding safe and hazard-free zones.
Subsequent to the soft landing, the six-wheeled rover will roll out and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day which is equal to 14 Earth days.
The life of the payloads carried by the propulsion module post ejection of the lander is between three and six months.
On the other hand, the mission life of the lander and the rover is 1 Lunar day or 14 earth days, ISRO said.
The success of Chandrayaan-3 mission – soft landing by the lander- will make India the fourth country in the world to land and ride on the Moon surface after the US, Russia and China.
India launched its first Moon mission Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 using its light rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the second mission was on July 22, 2019 with the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mk III now renamed as LVM3.
The third moon mission is a follow up of the failed Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019 as the lander Vikram crashed on to the moon surface.
As regards the changes made in the lander this time as compared to the one that crash landed on the moon during the Chandrayaan-2 mission, a senior ISRO official told IANS that the lander has four motors instead of five.
The space agency has also carried out some changes in the software.
The LVM3 with a capacity to carry four tons, is a three stage/engine rocket with two strap-on motors powered by solid fuel. The second stage is a core liquid fuel booster and the third is the cryogenic engine.
