Technical review of moon mission to be undertaken; Orbiter may have suffered a ‘heat stroke’
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    • ISRO Chief K. Madhavan Nair stated that scientists from India and abroad who played a crucial role in developing the payloads aboard the Chandrayaan-I lunar mission would meet soon to undertake a technical review. Out of the eleven scientific payloads on board the craft, five were designed and developed by Indian institutions1. The rest were designed by the European Space Agency (ESA), Bulgaria and the United States.

    ISRO officials meanwhile maintained that nearly 95 percent of the mission’s core tasks have been accomplished. Chandrayaan-I was expected to have a life span of two years, but the mission lasted only a little over ten months following a radio contact failure. Evidence suggested that the satellite orbiter may have suffered a ‘heat stroke’. Dr T.K. Alex, Director, ISRO Satellite Centre stated that ISRO scientists had “assumed that the temperature at 100km above the Moon's surface would be around 75 degrees Celsius. However, it was more than 75 degrees and problems started to surface. We had to raise the orbit to 200km2."

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