Bengaluru

July 17: Nearly nine months after the launch of the ambitious moon mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) was on Friday fighting a public relations battle, thanks to a Star Sensor on board Chandrayaan-1 that has gone bad, to reassure the country that all was well with the spacecraft.

Isro chairman Dr Madhavan Nair convened an emergency press meet and clarified that the Star Sensor, the ‘eye’ of the spacecraft that helped keep the spacecraft’s cameras oriented towards the moon, had started to malfunction as far back as April due to excessive radiation, but Isro scientists had got an alternative mechanism, using onboard gyroscopes and an antenna, working to fulfill its function. They also raised Chandrayaan-1 to a higher 200 km orbit above the moon, in May to shelter it in a “more benign environment”.

As if to silence critics, Dr Nair announced that Isro will turn Chandrayaan-1’s cameras towards the earth during the total solar eclipse of July 22 to conduct a unique study of the moon’s shadow on the earth from close to the moon.