Moon sick

China, Japan and India in a feverish race to the moon. Japan has already launched its first spacecraft, and India is working on the Chandrayaan 1 and has said it plans to be the fourth country to send a human into space.

A feverish race to the moon is underway between Asian countries: China, Japan and India. The Chinese space program to explore the moon using spacecraft has already been written about in this section before. Japan has meanwhile launched its first spacecraft to the moon, and India will join these two countries by the end of 2008, if everything goes as planned. Official Indian spokespeople previously stated that the spacecraft would be launched at the beginning of July this year, but the mission has already known many delays and postponements.

The first Indian spacecraft to the moon is called Chandrayaan, and it will weigh 1,304 kg at launch, including hundreds of kg of fuel, which is necessary for maneuvering in space and entering the orbit around the moon. After it is placed in orbit, the mass of the spacecraft will be about 550 kg. Apart from the declared scientific goals of India's first lunar mission, it should be remembered that India does not ignore the space programs of China and Japan, and a study of the schedule of the Indian space missions reveals a non-coincidental proximity to the programs of these countries. We should also remember the words of the founder of the Indian space program, Vikram Sarabhai, who outlined the Indian space policy already in the sixties of the 20th century, and stated that India should not be second to any factor in the field of advanced technology involved in space exploration - the guiding motto of The Indian space program to date.

Sarabhai did not get to see the realization of his vision - launching an Indian satellite using a self-developed launcher - because he died in 1971. India's most important space center is named after him, and in his writings the vision that India will soon fulfill is outlined, including launching a spacecraft to the moon and Indian astronauts for space missions. When the leaders of India debated the issue of developing a manned space mission to the moon, against the background of the great distress of many sections of the country's population, they used public opinion polls, which indicated strong support for a manned space program - which, aside from technological development, has a central element of national pride and prestige. The spacecraft will be launched to the moon using the Indian satellite launcher PSLV, the same launcher that was used in January 2008 to launch the Israeli Texar radar satellite.

It will be the first launch of a spacecraft to the moon using this satellite launcher, which is considered reliable. In order to increase the thrust required for a launch to lunar orbit, rocket boosters powered by solid fuel will be installed on the launcher. The Chandrayaan 1 lunar mission is scheduled to last about two years, during which the spacecraft will circle the moon and engage in research using its array of sensors.

The scientific mission of Chandrayaan 1 - an international array of instruments and experiments

The Chandrayaan 1 spaceship is built in the form of a cube, the end of which is about one and a half meters long. The spacecraft is stabilized on three axes, using an array of reaction wheels and small maneuvering motors. The electricity to operate its systems is produced by a large solar panel. The spacecraft's mission is to study the moon, photograph it with a selection of cameras and wavelengths, and study its various properties using six scientific instruments developed by India, and six more developed and built in different countries, following a call by the Indian Space Agency (an Israeli proposal for a scientific experiment on the spacecraft was submitted but not selected). The set of scientific instruments of the spacecraft is impressive in its scope, especially in relation to its small mass - 90 kg.

• The Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) - a camera capable of shooting at a resolution of 5 meters. Its images will be used to prepare an accurate atlas of the lunar surface.
• Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI) - a hyperspectral camera that will be used for a mineralogical survey of the lunar soil.
• Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) – a laser rangefinder that will be used to prepare an accurate topographical map of the moon.
• Sensing means in the field of X-rays - will be used to measure the flux of solar particles (solar wind) in the lunar region, as well as to accurately map several elements on the surface, including magnesium, aluminum, calcium, zinc and titanium. This device was developed in collaboration between the British Rutherford Appleton laboratory, the European Space Agency and India.
• High Energy X-ray/gamma ray spectrometer (HEX) – this spectrometer will be used to study radioactive elements on the surface of the moon.
• Moon Impact probe (MIP) – a tiny satellite (nano-satellite) that will be carried on the Chandrayaan spacecraft and crash on the moon. Three instruments will be installed on this sub-satellite: a video camera, an altimeter and a precise mass spectrometer.
• The Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SARA) - a scientific instrument developed by the European Space Agency, which is designed to study the composition of the lunar soil.
• Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) - a device developed at NASA's JPL laboratory, and intended for mineralogical mapping of the moon.
• A spectrometer in the near-infrared range - a development of the European Space Agency in the German Max Planck Laboratory, in collaboration with the Universities of Warsaw and Bergen. This sensor, which is also intended for the study of the mineral composition of the moon, is similar in its performance to the sensor installed in the European research spacecraft for the moon, Smart 1.
• S-band miniSAR - a remote sensing radar facility developed in the United States at John Hopkins University and NASA's JPL laboratory. This is a radar probe designed to study the ice sheet that covers shadowy craters at the moon's poles.
• Radiation Dose Monitor - a device developed and built in Bulgaria, and intended for mapping the radiation around the moon.

One can ask a "provocative" question: why build the spacecraft in this form, since most of the information it is designed to collect already exists? There are two possible answers to this question. One, the information available from the days of the Apollo and Clementine spacecrafts (an unmanned mission of the United States from the nineties of the 20th century) is already outdated, and the remote sensing devices are only getting more and more sophisticated; And the other, which is at least as important, concerns the essence of India's space program, which is seen as a national asset - independence.

The Chandrayaan 1 space mission is only the first phase of the Indian lunar program, and as such it is defined as both an experimental mission and a mission that will gather information to support the other missions. Although India can receive up-to-date information about the moon from Japan or China, both of which have research spacecraft currently orbiting the moon, obtaining the information independently of external factors has great political and political significance, according to the Indian perception.

Chandrayaan 2 – Lander and wandering robot

The head of the Indian space program, Madhavan Nair, said in 2007 that India was planning Chandrayaan 2, a lunar landing spacecraft that would include a rover, similar to the robotic vehicles operated by the United States on Mars, and similar to the second milestone in the Chinese lunar program. Official spokesmen in Russia stated that various space industries in Russia will play a part in the development of this spacecraft. The launch of the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft depends on the success of the first spacecraft in the series, and is planned for 2011-12, a date corresponding to the schedule of the Chinese and Japanese space programs for lunar exploration. The Russian company Lavochkin will cooperate with India in planning the mission. This company has experience in exploring the moon using robots since the days of the Soviet Union - and it has a historic achievement: the first robot to travel on the surface of the moon was Lunakhod, a product of the company's development.

A manned mission to the moon

India has publicly announced that it intends to develop the ability to launch a man into space, and become the fourth country in the world capable of doing so (after the Soviet Union, the United States and China). India's schedule for launching astronauts is intentionally vague, but senior spokespeople from the Indian Space Agency have stated on several occasions that sending Indian astronauts to the moon is also on the agenda, and even set 2020 as a target date - a date that fits with NASA's statements about the landing of the first manned mission on The moon as part of the Orion program, as well as with the Chinese plan to send astronauts to the moon on its behalf, both of which are planned to be carried out around this time.

Published in the July 2008 issue of the Galileo journal