SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS JUNE 2009

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS JUNE 2009
NASA successfully Launched LRO/LCROSS for return to the Moon


An Atlas V rocket carrying NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and sister payload Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) has launched from complex 41 at Cape Canaveral on Thursday evening. Both its payload passengers were successfully sent on their journey to the moon.


Japanese lunar probe to crash-land on moon


The Kaguya probe hit the moon. The probe was launched in September 2007 and has completed its scheduled observations. Its mission was extended and it has been in low lunar orbit since January last year.


Chandrayaan detects X-ray signals


Chandrayaan-I has picked up first X-ray signals from the Moon, revealing the presence of three elements. The Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (CIXS), one of the 11 payloads onboard Chandrayaan-1, has received X-ray “signatures” of aluminium, magnesium and silicon — three of the six elements it has been designed to detect, the others being titanium, iron and calcium. CIXS detected the X-ray signals on December 12, 2008 from a region close to the Apollo landing sites.


CIXS was jointly developed by ISRO and United Kingdom’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL).


ISRO Launched W2M Satellite from French Guiana. It is a communication satellite. The satellite was launched by Orion Launch Vehicle. The communication satellite has been built for European EADS Astrium, a subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS).Another satellite ‘Hot Bird’ was also launched by OLV.