Live blogging Chandrayaan 1

Fully assembled PSLV with spacecraft.

People behind Chandrayaan

1. Dr. Mylswamy Annadurai - The Project Director of Chandrayaan I
2. J A Kamlakar - An expert on LASERS
3. Dr. Manuel Grande - Principal Investigator CIXS
4. Dr. Urs Mall - SIR 2
5. Dr. Stas Barabash - SARA
More about them on Pradeeps blog People Behind Chandrayaan-1

C1XS technically comes in two halves - that half that monitors the Xrays as they reflect back off the surface of the moon, and an Xray Solar Monitor, to see how many Xrays are hitting the moon in the first place.That is actual flight hardware. I think the velcro-like-material is use to help attach the insulating foil that surrounds spacecraft. Chris did an amazing job to get CAD files of the instrument to me - which I then broke apart and re-modelled most of, in 3ds Max. I wasn’t able to replicate the full complexity of the instrument, but I think it’s reasonably indicative of reality.

The link to the ACTUAL animation is in the above message. Watch it its great.

Pallava Bagla: And where did you study? Did you study in any of these high flying IIT's or MIT or CALTECH?

Mylswamy Annadurai: Unfortunately I was not destined but I don't have a regret of not being there. Full and full my study, I think until I complete my post graduation in engineering I have not gone beyond my district.

Mylswamy Annadurai: More than difficult we have taken it more as challenging. See the work cultures, leaving alone the countries because it is different space agencies working. The way in which NASA works, the way in which ESA (European Space Agency) works, the way in which JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) works, the way in which Bulgarian space science works is quite different from the way in which ISRO works. Accommodating each one of them, accommodating their own requirements in a compact mission like Chandrayaan-1 is quite challenging, difficult.

Pallava Bagla: So would you have been able to fly your instrument if Chandrayaan were not there?

Urs Mall: No. absolutely not. This is part of our excitement. Chandrayaan-1 has given us the opportunity to fly the instrumentation which we have developed now in a record time. You know we would have to wait a couple of years probably until we would have had this chance. On the other hand we are preparing the SMART1, the ESA mission, you know for going into lunar sites. So now this has come wonderfully together, you know, and we are able and happy to contribute this payload to your satellite.

Pallava Bagla: So that I am told will make India the fourth country to have done that - after USA, Russia, Japan, possibly Japan, because Hiten we don't know whether it landed, and ESA is anyway an agency. India would be the fourth country to do that?

Mylswamy Annadurai: Yeah I think that may be the correct thing to happen because by that time even the Chinese could not have mission to complete. And we would have in our flag, national flag, putting it there would be the fourth country.