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Veteran space scientist G Madhavan Nair said Tuesday that ISRO's unsuccessful attempt to land softly on the moon was not alarming and that it would only allow complex missions from the master-agency from the space agency in the future.
The former president of the Indian Space Research Organization also acknowledged for the first time that "there was no longer any hope of restoring contact with the LG" Vikram & # 39; from Chandrayaan-2. Nair criticized critics of ISRO who questioned the statement by its chairman, K Sivan, that 98 percent of Chandrayaan-2's mission objectives had been met, despite an unsuccessful attempt by the two sides. landing on the moon.
ISRO is the country's best-performing country in terms of science and technology, and the results have proven it for many years, Nair said. "There is a system in place for review and decision-making.This is not a one-man show.It's a big family, an appropriate mechanism at all levels to revisit the process, design and testing, "said Nair in support of Sivan, who came under criticism in some quarters after the moon's mission did not go as planned.
He stated that ISRO had made many attempts and used different methods to restore the link with the LG, but that it had not succeeded so far. "So, we can say that they have not been able to use this part of the mission (lander)," Nair told PTI.
The Chandrayaan-2 LG with the Rover Pragyan & # 39; hidden inside, lost communication with the ground stations 2.1 km above the lunar surface, a few minutes before the scheduled landing in early September. Since then, ISRO has made every effort to restore the link.
The mission life of the lander, who had a hard landing, was a lunar day, equivalent to 14 Earth days, which ended last Saturday. When asked if there was now a "zero opportunity" to see the lander come back to life, Nair replied, "I think so, I do not think we'll be able to draw any thing".
But he was quick to add that the Chandrayaan-2 mission is a great success because most of the mission's objectives have been met, with the exception of the soft landing. He noted that the LG had been descended very gradually from 100 km altitude while traveling at a speed of 1.6 km per second, using navigation guidance systems, among others, up to a height of two kilometers, and that the location of the hardlanding was also within 500 meters of the designated touch target.
The soft landing is a "very, very complex type of maneuver", according to him. ISRO has developed thrusters for the mission and they have worked very well, he said. Nair, who flew the Chandrayaan-1 as president of ISRO more than ten years ago, explained that the planned soft landing was not proceeding in accordance with the scenario. ISRO, said that this could be due to a combination of factors.
"Some sensors would have behaved badly or software errors, we should not worry about it, or start crying, it's something that's happening," he said. Nair recalled that during his stay at ISRO, the first PSLV flight mission was a failure. "All the hardware worked well, but because of a small error in the software implementation, we lost the mission (then of the PSLV)," he said, adding that a host of corrective actions were subsequently taken, resulting in a success rate of 95% of the PSLV. aujourd & # 39; hui.
"Certainly, when you're dealing with a very complex system, failures are not uncommon, but we need to learn from these failures and fix the future," Nair said. "I totally agree with Mr. Sivan on the success rate of the Chandrayaan-2 mission at 98%," he said.
Nair noted that the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter was doing well, that all the instruments were working and that its life could be much longer than originally planned by ISRO. "Thus, the scientific community will receive a huge amount of data, and if they use it, several discoveries could result," he said, pointing out that the instruments on board the orbiter are very sophisticated.
"They (the instruments) look at it (lunar surface) from 100 km, the resolution is better, maybe we will have the highest resolution photo of the moon compared to any other country in the end of the mapping, "Nair said.
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