Missions Archives

December 1, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Who Listens For Phoenix?

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Phoenix isn’t merely dead; it’s really most sincerely dead. NASA has now stopped listening for any residual beeps sent by the Phoenix lander with the spacecraft orbiting Mars. After nearly a month of daily checks to listen for any last communications from the lander, the Mars Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have ended their efforts to listen for Phoenix. The final communication from Phoenix remains a brief signal received via Odyssey on Nov. 2. “The variability of the Martian weather was a contributing factor to our loss of communications, and we were hoping that another variation in weather might give us an opportunity to contact the lander again,” said Phoenix Mission Manager Chris Lewicki of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The last attempt to listen for a signal from Phoenix was when Odyssey passed overhead at 3:49 p.m. PST Saturday, Nov. 29 (4:26 p.m. local Mars solar time on the 182nd Martian day, or sol, since Phoenix landed).

And now, a moment of silence…

The Phoenix lander operated for two overtime months after achieving its science goals during its original three-month mission. It landed on a Martian arctic plain on back on May 25.

As expected, reduced daily sunshine eventually left the solar-powered Phoenix craft without enough energy to keep its batteries charged.

The end of efforts to listen for Phoenix with Odyssey and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had been planned for the start of solar conjunction, when the sun is almost directly between the Earth and Mars. This makes communications between Earth and Mars-orbiting spacecraft difficult, and so they are therefore minimized from now until mid-December.

Nov. 29 was selected weeks ago as the final date for relay monitoring of Phoenix because it provided several weeks to confirm the lander was really most sincerely dead, and it coincided with the beginning of solar conjunction. When they come out of the conjunction period, weather on far-northern Mars will be far colder, and the declining sunshine will have ruled out any chance of hearing from Phoenix.

Source: JPL

December 1, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Shuttle Landing: Beautiful; Progress Docking: Last-Minute Excitement

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Sunday was a busy day for human spaceflight, as space shuttle Endeavour landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California, and a Progress re-supply ship docked at the International Space Station. While the shuttle landing went off without a hitch, problems developed with an automated docking system for the Progress ship, forcing a last-minute switch to a manual docking, performed by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov. A series of problems including the loss of frequency information and unexpected toggling of the automatic system’s tracking displays occurred, Russian news agencies reported. But Lonchakov, who was already at the manual controls as a precaution, took over from the automated system when the Progress was about 30 meters (98 feet) from the station and guided it flawlessly to the docking port within a few minutes.

ISS Commander Mike Fincke and Yuri Lonchakov give thumbs up after a successful manual docking of the Progress vehicle. Credit: NASA TV

The decision to land in California was made early Sunday morning, as thunderstorms and strong winds prevented Endeavour from attempting either of the two landing opportunities at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the primary landing site.

The clear blue skies in southern California made for a picturesque landing, with a great view of the shuttle as it quickly dropped through the sky.

Endeavour touched down at 3:25 p.m Central time.

Endeavour arrived at the station Nov. 16, delivering equipment that will help allow the station to double its crew size to six. The new gear includes a water recovery system, which will allow urine and other condensate to be purified and converted into water for the crew’s use. Endeavour returned with samples of the processed water for experts in Houston to analyze before it is approved for use by the crew.

Endeavour’s astronauts also repaired and serviced crucial rotating joints for the station’s giant solar arrays. During four spacewalks, the astronauts lubricated and cleaned the joints that allow the arrays to automatically track the sun.

In addition, Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Sandy Magnus replaced Greg Chamitoff as part of the ISS crew. Chamitoff returned to Earth aboard Endeavour.

STS-126 is the 124th shuttle mission and 27th shuttle flight to visit the space station.

Progress vehicle as it approached the ISS. Credit: NASA TV

The Progress vehicle, which blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on November 26, was carrying water, scientific equipment as well as personal items and holiday gifts for the ISS crew.

Sources: NASA, AFP

November 27, 2008April 26, 2016 by Nancy Atkinson

Chandrayaan-1 Feeling the Heat

Moon imagery from two different cameras on Chandrayaan-1. Credit: ISRO

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India’s Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has successfully sent back some of its first science data and images from the moon, but the spacecraft is also experiencing rising temperatures, and mission managers have decided to use the instruments sparingly to avoid overheating. Chandrayaan-1 is currently orbiting over the sunlit side of the moon, and a rise in temperatures inside the spacecraft was expected, but still is a cause for concern. “This rise and fall in temperature inside a satellite is a normal cyclical process,” Mylswamy Annadurai, project director of Chandrayaan-I, told a newspaper in India, The Indian Express. “There is nothing unusual about it. But since this is the first cycle being faced by Chandrayaan, we are being extra cautious. We have decided to wait till the temperatures dip to bring the mission into the operational phase.” As of now, all but two of the instruments onboard have been switched on and tested. But only one instrument at a time is being used, and the two inactive instruments won’t be turned on until engineers know spacecraft is cool enough.

But scientists released a very nice video from the Terrain Mapping Camera…

Here’s a link to the movie of images stitched together for a view of flying over the Moon. The videos at ISRO only works in Internet Explorer. Find the science images at ISRO’s site here.

During the current orbital phase the spacecraft is almost continually in the sun and experiencing ‘summer.’ The Moon also radiates heat as it receives energy from the sun. The spacecraft’s temperature is expected to stabilize by the end of December. Until then, scientists will use one instrument at a time, but hope to operate all instruments simultaneously by mid-January.

Chandrayaan-1 has a heater, which is capable of increasing the temperature during the ‘winter’ but there is no cooling mechanism. If temperatures start reaching the upper limit, there would be no option but to switch off all the instruments.

Image from the TMC of the Moon's polar region. Credit: ISRO

The two instruments that haven’t been turned on yet are not only more sensitive to heat but also to high voltage. One is the Swedish sub-atomic reflecting analyzer (SARA), which will image the Moon’s permanently shadowed polar regions. The other is the Indian X-ray spectrometer, HEX, which will study radioactive emissions from the lunar surface.

“We thought it would be wise to wait for the temperature to go down before testing them,” Annadurai said. The extra-cautiousness on the part of mission scientists is only because this is Chandrayaan’s first experience with such phenomenon. “We are well within the upper limit of the spacecraft’s temperature bracket. But we want to remain in this comfort zone as it is our first experience,” Annadurai added.

Chandrayaan-1 carries 11 payloads, including a Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC), Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI), Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI), High Energy X-ray Spectrometer (HEX), Moon Impact Probe (MIP), Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS), Smart Near-IR Spectrometer (SIR-2), Radiation Dose Monitor Experiment (RADOM), Sub Kev Atom reflecting Analyser (SARA), Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (MiniSAR) and Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3).

Source: Indian Express, ISRO

November 26, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Good News and Great Pictures from STS-126

Views during an STS-126 EVA. Credit: NASA

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Seemingly, the current space shuttle mission, STS-126, has been all about two things: recycling and restoring. The crew has been working almost nonstop to get a new system that turns urine into drinking water to work correctly; and spacewalkers spent a majority of four grueling EVAs cleaning and lubricating a jammed solar-wing joint on the station’s right side. And now there’s good news to report on both fronts. The urine recycling system now seems to be working perfectly. “Not to spoil anything, but I think up here the appropriate words are ‘Yippee!'” space station commander Mike Fincke told ground controllers. Mission Control replied, “There will be dancing later.” The recycling system will be a necessity for supporting the International Space Station’s crew, which will increase from three to six in early 2009. Also essential will be enough power to support the larger crew, so having the SARJ working correctly, the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint which allows the solar arrays to track the sun, is more good news. After Endeavour astronauts worked on the giant gears and replaced bearing assemblies, initial tests found the starboard SARJ working well, with no power spikes or excessive vibrations. So, with the major hurdles on the mission being cleared, the astronauts will be able to enjoy an irradiated, freeze-dried, vacuum-packed Thanksgiving holiday meal on Thursday. And UT readers can now enjoy some of the great images from this mission in the gallery below.

The space station crew had this view of space shuttle Endeavour as it approached the ISS for docking. Visible in the payload bay is the Italian-built Leonardo Multipurpose Logistics Module, or cargo carrier.

Fresh fruit is a rarity and a delicacy in space, and is one of the things the ISS crew enjoys the most during a shuttle visit. Here astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Sandra Magnus are pictured with fresh fruit floating freely on the middeck of Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen work in tandem near a truss structure during one of four spacewalks conducted during the STS-126 mission.

Astronauts install a new component. Credit: NASA

The shuttle crew brought up “home improvements” for the ISS and here, Greg Chamitoff and Sandy Magnus move a crew quarters rack in the Harmony node of the International Space Station. This will be a future crew member’s personal space and sleep station.

A view inside the Leonardo Multipurpose Logistics Module, which carried up 14,000 lbs of supplies and new facilities for the space station including two water recovery systems racks for recycling urine into potable water, a second toilet system, new gallery components, two new food warmers, a food refrigerator, an experiment freezer, combustion science experiment rack, two separate sleeping quarters and a resistance exercise device.

View of the ISS and solar arrays. Credit: NASA

Can you find the astronaut in this image? Spacewalker Steve Bowen is dwarfed by the station components and solar arrays in this view.

Following a space-to-Earth press conference, members of the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavour crews posed for a group portrait on the orbital outpost. Astronaut Donald Pettit appears at photo center. Just below Pettit is astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshin-Piper. Clockwise from her position are astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Steve Bowen, Eric Boe, Chris Ferguson and Michael Fincke, along with cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, and astronauts Sandra Magnus and Gregory Chamitoff.

One more EVA picture for you. Here Steve Bowen works during the mission’s fourth and final EVA as maintenance continueson the International Space Station. During the six-hour spacewalk, Bowen and astronaut Shane Kimbrough (not visible), completed the lubrication of the port Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJ) as well as other station assembly tasks. Bowen returned to the starboard SARJ to install the final trundle bearing assembly, retracted a berthing mechanism latch on the Japanese Kibo Laboratory and reinstalled its thermal cover. Bowen also installed a video camera on the Port 1 truss and attached a Global Positioning System antenna on the Japanese Experiment Module Pressurized Section.

See all the STS-126 images here.

November 24, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

It’s Official: Juno is Going to Jupiter

NASA has decided to return to Jupiter with a mission to conduct an unprecedented, in-depth study of the largest planet in our solar system. The mission is called Juno, and it will be the first in which a spacecraft is placed in a highly elliptical polar orbit around the giant planet to understand its formation, evolution and structure. Missions to Jupiter have been on again, off again, with a mission to Europa falling during the 2006 budget cuts, and the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (which would have used a nuclear reactor to power an ion engine to send an orbiter to 3 of Jupiter’s moons) getting the ax in 2005. Juno has been on the table since 2004, surviving budget cuts, although the mission has experienced delays. But it looks official now, and the spacecraft is scheduled to launch in August 2011, reaching Jupiter in 2016.

Scientists say studying Jupiter is important because it hold secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our early solar system. “Jupiter is the archetype of giant planets in our solar system and formed very early, capturing most of the material left after the sun formed,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “Unlike Earth, Jupiter’s giant mass allowed it to hold onto its original composition, providing us with a way of tracing our solar system’s history.”

The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter 32 times, skimming about 3,000 miles over the planet’s cloud tops for approximately one year. The mission will be the first solar powered spacecraft designed to operate despite the great distance from the sun.

Artists concept of Juno at Jupiter. Credit: NASA

“Jupiter is more than 400 million miles from the sun or five times further than Earth,” Bolton said. “Juno is engineered to be extremely energy efficient.”

The spacecraft will use a camera and nine science instruments to study the hidden world beneath Jupiter’s colorful clouds. The suite of science instruments will investigate the existence of an ice-rock core, Jupiter’s intense magnetic field, water and ammonia clouds in the deep atmosphere, and explore the planet’s aurora borealis.

Understanding the formation of Jupiter is essential to understanding the processes that led to the development of the rest of our solar system and what the conditions were that led to Earth and humankind. Similar to the sun, Jupiter is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. A small percentage of the planet is composed of heavier elements. However, Jupiter has a larger percentage of these heavier elements than the sun.

“Juno gives us a fantastic opportunity to get a picture of the structure of Jupiter in a way never before possible,” said James Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It will allow us to take a giant step forward in our understanding on how giant planets form and the role that plays in putting the rest of the solar system together. ”

The last mission to Jupiter was the Galileo mission, which began its observations of the giant planet in 1995, made 35 orbits, and then was intentionally flown into the planet in 2003 to avoid any contamination of Jupiter’s moons.

Source: NASA

November 21, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Dawn Spacecraft Shuts Down Ion Engines

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The Dawn spacecraft’s three ion engines have done their work for now, and mission engineers shut down the frugal but powerful ion propulsion system on Thursday as scheduled. The spacecraft is now gliding toward a Mars flyby/gravity assist in February 2009. “Dawn has completed the thrusting it needs to use Mars for a gravity assist to help get us to Vesta,” said Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer from JPL “Dawn will now coast in its orbit around the sun for the next half a year before we again fire up the ion propulsion system to continue our journey to the asteroid belt.” The unique propulsion system will allow Dawn to travel to the asteroid Vesta in 2011, enter orbit around the asteroid, and then leave that orbit to head to orbit another asteroid, Ceres in 2015. This has never been accomplished before, and the ion engines make it all possible.

Dawn’s ion engines are vital to the success of the misson’s 8-year, 4.9-billion-kilometer (3-billion-mile) journey to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. Just one of these extremely frugal powerhouses can generate more than 24 hours of thrusting while consuming about .26 kilograms (about 9 ounces) of the spacecraft’s xenon fuel supply — less than the contents of a can of soda. Over their lifetime, Dawn’s three ion propulsion engines will fire cumulatively for about 50,000 hours (over five years) — a record for spacecraft.

Artists concept of Dawn. Credit: NASA/JPL

Dawn’s ion engines may get a short workout next January to provide any final orbital adjustments prior to its encounter with the Red Planet. Ions are also scheduled to fly out of the propulsion system during some systems testing in spring. But mostly, Dawn’s three ion engines will remain silent until June, when they will again speed Dawn toward its first appointment, with Vesta.

Vesta is the most geologically diverse of the large asteroids and the only known one with distinctive light and dark areas — much like the face of our Moon. Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt. By utilizing the same set of instruments at two separate destinations, scientists can more accurately formulate comparisons and contrasts. Dawn’s science instrument suite will measure shape, surface topography, tectonic history, elemental and mineral composition, and will seek out water-bearing minerals. In addition, the Dawn spacecraft itself and how it orbits both Vesta and Ceres will be used to measure the celestial bodies’ masses and gravity fields.

Source: NASA

November 20, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

MSL News: Landing Sites and Naming Contest

Landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory have been narrowed down to four intriguing places on the Red Planet. The car-sized rover will have the capability to travel to more scientifically compelling sites, and with its radioisotope power source, it won’t need to rely on solar power, allowing for more flexibility in locations say project leaders at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After seeking input from international experts on Mars and engineers working on the landing systems, here are the four sites JPL announced (drumroll)…

Oh, before listing the sites, NASA is having a name the rover contest for MSL, so check that out, too!

Eberswalde: where an ancient river deposited a delta in a possible lake, south of Mars equator.

Gale: a crater with a mountain within that has stacked layers including clays and sulfates, near the equator. This was a favorite site for the Mars Exploration Rovers, but it was deemed to hazardous for them. Not so for MSL.

Holden: a crater containing alluvial fans, flood deposits, possible lake beds and clay-rich deposits, in the southern hemisphere.

Mawrth: , which shows exposed layers containing at least two types of clay, in the northern hemisphere, near the edge of a vast Martian highland.

“All four of these sites would be great places to use our roving laboratory to study the processes and history of early Martian environments and whether any of these environments were capable of supporting microbial life and its preservation as biosignatures,” said John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. He is the project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory.

Wheels were put on MSL in August 2008. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

During the past two years, multiple observations of dozens of candidate sites by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have augmented data from earlier orbiters for evaluating sites’ scientific attractions and engineering risks.

JPL is assembling and testing the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft for launch in fall 2009.

“Landing on Mars always is a risky balance between science and engineering. The safest sites are flat, but the spectacular geology is generally where there are ups and downs, such as hills and canyons. That’s why we have engineered this spacecraft to make more sites qualify as safe,” said JPL’s Michael Watkins, mission manager for the Mars Science Laboratory. “This will be the first spacecraft that can adjust its course as it descends through the Martian atmosphere, responding to variability in the atmosphere. This ability to land in much smaller areas than previous missions, plus capabilities to land at higher elevations and drive farther, allows us consider more places the scientists want to explore.”

MSL is designed to hit a target area roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter. Also, a new “skycrane” technology to lower the rover on a tether for the final touchdown can accommodate more slope than the airbag method used for Spirit and Opportunity.

Source: JPL

November 14, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Moon Impact Probe Hits Paydirt (or pay-regolith…)

close up pictures of the moon's surface taken by Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on November 14, 2008

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The lunar impactor from the Chandrayaan-1 mission today successfully made it to the surface of the moon, impacting inside the Shackleton crater on the moon’s south pole. Above is an image transmitted back by the 34 kg box-shaped MIP (Moon Impact Probe) before it slammed into the moon. Incoming!!! The MIP carried three instruments, and data was successfully transmitted from the 25-minute descent of the probe after it was ejected from the orbiting Chandrayaan-1. The impact, however caused a cessation of the instruments’ transmissions, but not before providing useful descent data. The ISRO has already released a couple of images.

The instruments included a video imaging system, a radar altimeter and a mass spectrometer. The video imaging system took pictures of the moon’s surface as MIP approached and the radar altimeter measured the rate of descent. These two instruments will help subsequent lunar missions for the ISRO, aiding in future soft landing missions to the moon. The mass spectrometer studied the extremely thin lunar atmosphere.

Here’s a recap of the probe’s mission today from the ISRO:

“MIP’s 25 minute journey to the lunar surface began with its separation from Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft at 20:06 hrs (8:06 pm) IST. This was followed by a series of automatic operations that began with the firing of its spin up rockets after achieving a safe distance of separation from Chandrayaan-1. Later, the probe slowed down with the firing of its retro rocket and started its rapid descent towards the moon’s surface. Information from the instruments was radioed to Chandrayaan-1 by MIP. The spacecraft recorded this in its onboard memory for later readout. Finally, the probe had a hard landing on the lunar surface that terminated its functioning.”

Chandrayaan-1 is now in its science orbit. During the spiraling flight to the moon, two payloads were turned on – the Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM). The eight other instruments on board will be activated in the coming days.

Source: ISRO

November 11, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Spirit Rover in Trouble

The deck of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is so dusty that the rover almost blends into the dusty background. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

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Martian dust storms are wreaking havoc with human spacecraft. Not only did a dust storm cut short the Phoenix lander’s extended mission, but now, another dust storm around Gusev Crater has cut into the amount of sunlight reaching the solar array on Spirit, one of the Mars Exploration Rovers, leaving the rover in serious trouble from diminished power. From the image above, it’s obvious Spirit’s solar panels are thickly coated with dust. Although this image was taken over a year ago, it’s likely the solar panels have only gotten worse.

Spirit’s solar array produced only 89 watt hours of energy during the rover’s 1,725th Martian day, which ended on Nov. 9. This is the lowest output by either Spirit or its twin, Opportunity, in their nearly five years on Mars, and much less energy than Spirit needs each day. The charge level of Spirit’s batteries is dropping so low, it risks triggering an automated response of the rover trying to protect itself.

“The best chance for survival for Spirit is for us to maintain sequence control of the rover, as opposed to it going into automated fault protection,” said John Callas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.

Mission controllers are commanding Spirit to turn off some heaters, including one that protects a science instrument, the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, and take other measures to reduce energy consumption. The commands will tell Spirit not to try communicating again until Thursday. While pursuing that strategy the team also plans to listen to Spirit frequently during the next few days to detect signals the rover might send if it does go into a low-energy fault protection mode.

Mars weather forecasts suggest the dust storm may be clearing now or in the next few days. However, the dust falling from the sky onto Spirit’s solar array panels also could leave a lingering reduction in the amount of electricity the rover can produce.

We’ll keep you posted on Spirit’s condition.

Source: JPL

November 8, 2008December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Chandrayaan-1 Now Successfully in Lunar Orbit

Chandrayaan-1 in lunar orbit. Credit: ISRO

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Chandrayaan-1, India’s first unmanned spacecraft mission to moon, successfully entered lunar orbit on November 8. The spacecraft fired its engines to reduce velocity and enable the Moon’s gravity to capture it; engines were fired for 817 seconds when Chandrayaan-1 was about 500 km away from the moon. Next up for the spacecraft will be to reduce the height of its lunar orbit to about 100 km. Then, on Nov. 14th or 15th, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) will be launched, and crash into the Moon’s surface (more about the MIP below). If you enjoy watching animations and want to see exactly how the spacecraft attained its lunar orbit, here’s a few animations for you:

A simple animation of how the spacecraft went from its spiraling elliptical orbit around Earth to its now spiraling elliptical orbit around the moon can be found on the India Space Agency’s site. (Sorry, the file was to big to insert here.)

Another quite large animation that was created by Doug Ellison (of UnmannedSpaceflight.com) shows how the X-ray Spectrometer aboard Chandrayaan-1 will work. This one takes a long time to download, but the wait is well worth it: the animation is spectacular.

Here’s a video that shows an animation of the entire mission; again, some great animation here. Enjoy.

The spacecraft is now orbiting the moon in an elliptical orbit that passes over the polar regions of the moon. The nearest point of this orbit (perigee) lies at a distance of about 504 km from the moon’s surface while the farthest point (apogee) lies at about 7502 km. Currently, Chandrayaan-1 takes about 11 hours to orbit the moon.

The MIP carries three instruments:

Radar Altimeter – measures the altitude of the probe during descent and for qualifying technologies for future landing missions.

Video Imaging System – acquires close range images of the surface of the Moon during descent. The video imaging system consists of analog CCD camera.

Mass Spectrometer measures the constituents of lunar atmosphere during descent.

Source: ISRO