Having ruled out the inclusion of foreign payloads onboard India’s second moon odyssey, Chandrayaan-2, the laboratories involved in the development of the scientific instruments for the mission have a challenging task of keeping the weight within what has been stipulated.

The weight of Chandrayaan-2, which will have five payloads on the orbiter (satellite) and two on rower, cannot exceed 40kg. Overall, Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft weighs about 2,650kg at lift-off. The orbiter weighs about 1,400kg and the lander’s weight is about 1,250kg.

“The weight is very critical and there is a challenge to stick to the stipulated weight. We will be conducting constant reviews so that the weight does not exceed (the prescribed limit),” said Prof UR Rao, chairman, Advisory Committee on Space Sciences (ADCOS), which finalised the payloads for the mission.

The five payloads of the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter are Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS); L- and S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR); Imaging IR Spectrometer (IIRS); Neutral Mass Spectrometer (ChACE-2); and Terrain Mapping Camera-2 (TMC-2).

The two scientific payloads on Chandrayaan-2 rover are the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) and Alpha Particle-Induced X-ray Spectroscope (APIXS). The 424-crore Chandrayaan-2 mission is a sequel to the hugely successful Chandrayaan-1 project, which was launched in 2008.

Chandrayaan-2, which will also have a lander provided by Russia, was initially planned to be launched in 2013, onboard Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

However, there could be a delay of about a year as the GSLV suffered two back-to-back failures.

Date : 12/27/2011 Author : Author : Hemanth CS  Copyright restricted. Under license from www.dnasyndication.com