Although the PSLV-C14 mission on Wednesday was a success, there are challenges ahead for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), according to K. Radhaakrishnan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

These include launching a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D3) with an indigenous cryogenic stage from Sriharikota in December 2009 and the PSLV-C15 ahead of December, he said. The GSLV-D3 launch would be “a landmark in indigenous technology,” Dr. Radhaakrishnan said. It would put a communication satellite called GSAT-4 in orbit. The first stage had moved to Sriharikota. Its indigenous cryogenic stage would undergo tests at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu. Then it would be moved to Sriharikota and integrated with the other stages. In the case of the PSLV-C15, it would put Cartosat-2B in orbit.

On reports about NASA’s Moon Mineralogy Mapper on board Chandrayaan-1 locating water ice on the moon, ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said, “I cannot confirm at the moment. Maybe, at the end of the week, I will let you know.” The Mapper had covered 97 per cent of the moon’s surface. When asked how the ISRO had underestimated the radiation levels in the moon’s environment, which baked Chandrayaan-1’s components and led to the spacecraft’s premature death, Mr. Nair asserted that the ISRO was “100 per cent satisfied with the mission’s objectives. Chandrayaan-1 performed as per its design. There were hostile factors in the space above the moon. The radiation levels were high. There were charged particles. So the power monitors on board Chandrayaan-1 were affected. The inputs from this mission would be kept in mind when ISRO sent more spacecraft to the moon," he said. Mr. Nair called Chandrayaan-1 “a dead object going round the moon.” It would slowly come down over a period of 1000 days and then crash on the moon.

ISRO had completed the preliminary design of Chandrayaan-2, which would include a lander/rover. The rover would go about on the moon and pick up samples, which would be analysed in situ. Its launch would take place in 2012-13. While M.Y.S. Prasad, Associate Director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, called it a “good mission,” S. Ramakrishnan, Director (Projects), VSSC, described it as a “wonderful mission.”

Director of Space Applications Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad, R.R. Navalgund said the 960-kg Oceansat-2 had three important payloads. They were the ocean color monitor, a scatterometer (both designed by the SAC) and Radio Occultation Sounder for Atmospheric Studies (ROSA) built by the Italian Space Agency. The ocean color monitor would gather data about plant life in the oceans and the scatterometer would measure the sea surface winds.

The six nano satellites put in orbit last Wednesday were educational satellites from abroad, meant to test new spacecraft technologies. Of the six, four were CubeSats weighing one kg each. They were from Ecole Polytechnique federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, Technical University of Berlin and University of Wurzburg, both in Germany, and Istanbul Technical University. The Rubinsats, weighing eight kg each, were from Luxembourg and Germany. (Source: The Hindu)