spacetoday.net: space news from around the webin association with SpaceNews


Chandrayaan-1 problems linked to thermal miscalculation
Posted: Mon, Sep 7, 2009, 8:14 AM ET (1214 GMT)
Chandrayaan 1 illustration (ISRO) Last month's failure of India's first lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, may have been caused by excessive temperatures in the spacecraft linked to other problems with the orbiter. The head of the ISRO Satellite Centre said that spacecraft engineers had expected temperatures at the spacecraft's planned orbit of 100 kilometers to be about 75 degrees Celsius, but it turned out to be somewhat higher. This led to problems with the spacecraft, including failed star sensors, that eventually forced spacecraft controllers to move the spacecraft to a 200-kilometer orbit. Contact with Chandrayaan-1 was lost on August 29, and while initial reports blamed the failure on radiation damage to the spacecraft's electronics, it wasn't clear how much the unanticipated thermal exposure led to the failure.
<<previous article   next article>>
news in brief
NASA astronauts perform ISS spacewalk
Posted: Sun, May 4 10:25 AM ET (1425 GMT)

SpaceX launches Starlink satellites
Posted: Sun, May 4 10:24 AM ET (1424 GMT)

Senate committee advances Isaacman nomination to lead NASA
Posted: Sun, May 4 10:23 AM ET (1423 GMT)

news links
Thursday, May 8
Elon Musk’s Starlink gets Indian regulatory go-ahead for satcom services
The Economic Times (India) — 6:45 am ET (1045 GMT)


about spacetoday.net   ·   info@spacetoday.net   ·   mailing list