3rd Lunar mission in 15 years! Moon truly beckons ISRO
Bengaluru (PTI): Three Lunar missions in 15 years! It seems the Moon truly beckons ISRO. And why not? Scientists found frozen water deposits in the darkest and coldest parts of the Moon's polar regions for the first time using data from the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in 2009.
Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to the Moon, was launched on October 22, 2008 from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.
The spacecraft, carrying 11 scientific instruments built in India, the USA, the UK, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria, orbited around the Moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface for chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic mapping of the Moon.
After the successful completion of all the major mission objectives, the orbit was raised to 200 km in May 2009. The satellite made more than 3,400 orbits around the Moon.
The orbiter mission, which had a mission life of two years, was, however, prematurely aborted after communication with the spacecraft was lost on August 29, 2009.
"Chandrayaan-1 achieved 95 per cent of its objectives," said the then ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair.
And a decade later, Chandrayaan-2, comprising an orbiter, lander and rover, was successfully launched on July 22, 2019.
The objectives of the country's second mission to the Moon were scientific studies by payloads onboard the orbiter, and technology demonstration of soft landing and roving on the lunar surface.
Most of the components of technology demonstration, including the launch, orbital critical manoeuvres, lander separation, de-boost and rough braking phase were successfully accomplished.
However, the lander with a rover in its belly crash-landed on the lunar surface in the final lap, failing in its objective to touch down gently.
"We narrowly missed it (soft landing on the Moon in Chandrayaan-2 mission) in the last two km (above the lunar surface)," Nair had told PTI on Monday.
However, all the eight scientific instruments of the orbiter, which had separated from the lander and rover, are performing as per design and providing valuable scientific data.
Due to the precise launch and orbital manoeuvres, the mission life of the orbiter increased to seven years, according to ISRO.
In fact, ISRO on Monday said that two-way communication between the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and the Chandrayaan-3 lunar module has been established.
Moreover, the discovery of water on the Moon in 2009 was a hugely significant event, following which scientists, using data from an instrument which flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, created the first map of water trapped in the uppermost layer of the Moon's soil. It would prove useful to future lunar explorers, ISRO officials said.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, builds on the initial discovery in 2009 of water and a related ion hydroxyl, which consists of one atom each of hydrogen and oxygen in lunar soil.
Scientists from Brown University in the US used a new calibration of data taken from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, which flew aboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in 2008, to quantify how much water is present on a global scale.
Using data collected by India's Chandrayaan-1 mission, NASA has detected magmatic water locked under the surface of the Moon.
The findings represent the first remote detection of this form of water that originates from deep within the Moon's interior, NASA researchers had said.
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Iran attacks oil tanker near Dubai; Trump warns of strikes on energy sites if Hormuz remains shut
Tel Aviv/Washington: Iran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Monday after US President Donald Trump warned that Washington would target Iran’s energy infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.
According to a Reuters report, the Kuwait-flagged tanker Al-Salmi is owned by Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and was capable of carrying around 2 million barrels of crude. . It was struck in what authorities later described as a drone attack. The company said the incident occurred early Tuesday, causing a fire and hull damage. No injuries were reported and the fire was brought under control, Dubai authorities said .
Oil prices rose briefly following the attack and added to volatility in global energy markets. In the United States, retail gasoline prices crossed $4 per gallon for the first time in more than three years, according to data from GasBuddy, as crude prices moved above $101 per barrel.
Israel said it carried out missile strikes on military infrastructure in Tehran and on sites linked to Iran-backed Hezbollah in Beirut. Explosions were reported in parts of Tehran, with Iran’s Tasnim news agency saying power outages occurred in the eastern Pirouzi district following the blasts.
The Israel Defense Forces said four soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon. In recent days, three peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon were also killed in separate incidents in the same area.
Iran’s military spokesperson said Tehran’s latest wave of missile and drone strikes targeted US military positions at five bases in the region and sites in Israel. Thousands of troops from the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division have begun arriving in the Middle East, according to US officials, expanding Washington’s military options even as diplomatic efforts continue.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Reuters Trump wants an agreement with Iranian leaders before a revised April 6 deadline for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, adding that talks were progressing, while public statements from Tehran differed from private communications.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said proposals received through intermediaries were “unrealistic” and maintained that Iran was focused on defending itself.
In a social media post, Trump said that if a deal is not reached soon and the strait is not reopened, the US would strike Iran’s electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg Island. However, a report in The Wall Street Journal said Trump had told aides he may be willing to end the military campaign even if the strait remains largely closed and address reopening it later. The White House referred to earlier remarks by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the strait would be opened “one way or another.”
The administration has also requested an additional $200 billion in funding for the conflict, a proposal that faces opposition in the US Congress.
