Chandrayaan sensor fails, craft's life may be reduced

Bangalore: India's maiden moon probe Chandrayaan-I has developed a malfunction that puts some experiments in jeopardy and raises questions on the completion of the mission that was intended to last two years.

"Unfortunately, during the last month we have lost a vital sensor, the star sensor," the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman, Mr G. Madhavan Nair, said.

He said the space scientists had tried to work around the problem and patched two other instruments to help manoeuvre the spacecraft to the desired locations.

"We are not sure how long we will be able to sustain it. The life of Chandrayaan-I designed for two years may be reduced," ISRO spokesman, Mr S. Satish, said. Chandrayaan was launched on October 22 last year. Mr Nair said that in the last eight months of the mission, "we have collected almost all the data that we wanted" and that most of its objectives have already been completed.

The problem would mean that some of the 10 experiments onboard would have to be replanned and at least one involving the Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) being abandoned.

The LLRI was designed to measure altitude variations within five-metre accuracy and operate at a 100-km altitude, a distance at which the spacecraft was to orbit the moon during its two-year mission period.

ISRO had raised the orbit of Chandrayaan-I to 200 kms on May 19.