For years the scientific community was haunted by this mystery (about the presence of water). There were several theories about water deposits but in spite of 60 missions sent by countries like the USA and the USSR, no one could confirm the presence of water.
“It is our experiments which have confirmed water for the first time. Initially, a few molecules were found on the surface, about 600 parts per million; which means that if you take one tonne of soil and process it, at the end you will get half a bottle of water.
“But the really revealing findings were brought out by the second instrument, the synthetic aperture radar… it was built by NASA and the data was analysed by Indian and US scientists. Layers of ice deposits were seen in the craters on the south pole of the moon.”
Dr. Nair recalled a theory according to which a lot of water would have been deposited when the moon was formed, or perhaps due to the impact of meteors. But since there was a hard vacuum around the moon, almost all the water would have evaporated.
Added to this was the fact that the temperature near the moon’s equator was about 400 degrees Kelvin, whereas at the poles it was 150 degrees Kelvin (150 degrees Kelvin was equal to a temperature of about 100 degrees below freezing point).
From this it was deducted that water was retained at freezing temperatures, but where it was warm it evaporated and escaped into outer space.
Thus, there was clear confirmation about the existence of water in the form of ice. As for the quantity, it was not asmall amount; the optimisticestimate was 100 million tonnes of water, whereas the pessimistic onesaid there was at least one million tonnes.
“This is a fantastic finding as far as the scientific community is concerned, especially when we are talking about the future colonisation of the moon. As you know, we need oxygen and water for everything. Earlier, it was believed that these are not available on the moon and would have to be carried from earth.
“But the cost of taking one litre of water from earth is about $ 50,000. It is simply not affordable. This finding is a path-breaking event if we want to establish colonies on the moon. The water can be dissociated and we can get oxygen and hydrogen. The oxygen can be used for breathing and the hydrogen, which is a good fuel, can be used for producing electricity or even as rocket fuel for the return journey.
“In other words, this is the first step forward for the human colonisation of the moon; such is the significance of finding water. We are really happy that India could play a major role in this. Today, the entire global community is appreciating Indian scientists’ contribution to global planetary exploration.”
Once colonies were established on the moon, it would become a good observation post. It would also facilitate further travel to Mars and beyond… perhaps 30 to 40 years from now. India had “laid the first stone” towards that.
Dr. Nair said the Indian space programme started in November, 1963, with the launch of a small sounding rocket from the Thumba equatorial rocket launching station. It went up to an altitude of about 150 km. and then fell into the sea.
Forty five years later, in November, 2008, ISRO sent a satellite all the way to the moon, travelling 400,000 km. and then orbiting the moon at a precise altitude of 100 km. This, in short, was the story of the growth of ISRO over the last four and a half decades.
It spoke volumes about the capabilities of Indian technology, the Indian scientific community, the academicians and the industries which formed the partnership that was ISRO today.
The moon mission was a tremendous success on many counts. It was the first time ISRO had launched a satellite beyond earth’s orbit and achieved success in the very first attempt. As for the instruments on board Chandrayaan-1, they consisted of a remarkable combination of sensors that looked for surface features, tried to map the terrain and then looked for minerals on the surface. But above all they attempted to check whether or not there was water on the moon. Dr. Nair said that although it was India’s mission in all respects, there was a lot of international co-operation, too. It was felt that “since we are going all the way to the moon, we should carry (the instruments of) some of the other interested parties as well”.
There were two instruments from the USA, three from Europe and six from the Indian scientific community. The tools on board included laser-tracking instruments, three-dimensional cameras and multi-spatial cameras.
The net result was that in three months the mission had yielded an astonishing volume of data which was still being analysed. There was information about innumerable features of the moon and a lot of data to throw light on how the moon had evolved, how it had shaped over the years and its present condition.
Sadly, the mission had ended in 300 days as against the original plan of keeping it active for two years; there was “premature termination of the mission, but we have achieved whatever we wanted to in terms of capturing the features of the moon”.
Before starting the scientific work, Dr. Nair revealed, a flag of India was dropped on the surface of the moon on November 14, 2008, the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, who had pioneered scientific research in the country.
Interestingly, there was no plan to drop a flag. It was the then President, Dr. Abdul Kalam, who had suggested that there was no point in going to the moon and not leaving a flag behind.
Thus, half-way through the project alterations were made to the designs and a small capsule was added which detached itself from the spacecraft and went down to the moon’s surface.
“We also fitted a fine camera to it which took a lot of pictures of the surface of the moon during its descent. The last picture was taken from a height of one metre. We could see precise images of the grains on the surface of the moon.”
Dr. Nair then gave an overall view of the various space programmes of ISRO over the years and their application for social good.
When ISRO was formed in the 1960s, the visionary Dr. Vikram Sarabhai was at the helm. He drilled certain key words into the minds of his co-workers. He told them to achieve self-reliance in high technology in space research and to apply this for the benefit of mankind and to improve the life of the common man.
It was a very tough task; no developed country was willing to part with complex rocket and space technology, for fear it would be diverted for use in military applications.
“Therefore, we had to start from scratch, making pencil rockets, slightly larger than Diwali rockets; they had about five kg. of propellant and could climb up to hardly five km. We have come a long way since then.
“A month back we fired the third largest booster in the world. It carried 200 tonnes of propellant. It will be one of the boosters for the next generation launch vehicle, called the GSLV-III. Thus we have come a long way in propulsion technology and in solid propellants.”
Dr. Nair said when ISRO scientists recognised the need for greater efficiency they started giving focusing on liquid rocket engines using oxygen and hydrogen. Both these elements were normally in gaseous form and occupied a large volume. To reduce volume it was necessary to convert them into a liquid state. But this required very low, or cryogenic, temperatures.
Handling liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen at low temperatures was one problem; the others were equally tough, such as “conditioning” the fluids with booster pumps, injecting them into the rocket engine, burning them and then getting the desired thrust.
‘Chandrayaan-1 consumed hardly 3% of the resources used in India’s space programme over four years’
Initially, some technology was taken from the Soviet Union, but once it broke up and the USA became more influential, the scientists had to face a “regime” of embargoes.
“It forced us to make the engine on our own. And I am happy to saythat the Godrej establishment played a very significant role in thedevelopment of the cryogenic engine. ISRO was involved in the design and development part, but in its manufacturing, production and testing, the industries in Bombaydid a phenomenal job.
“This is an example of how a difficult technology can be mastered by a partnership between a research organisation and industry. Of course, Godrej had to pay a ‘penalty’, because the embargoes affected them also, but they have recovered now.
“What this indicates is that people are jealous. When you do something good, they will not spare you. So you have to work hard. But we see today that India has full mastery over any technology with respect to rockets. Name any engine for any purpose, Indian scientists and industry are capable of making it.”
Dr. Nair asserted that India now had world-class rocket technology; it had all three – the solid propellant, the liquid propellant and the cryogenic engine. As far as thrust was concerned, the range went all the way from one-tenth of a kg. to 200 tonnes.
The USSR and the USA used to launch India's satellites. The first ones were called Aryabhatta and Bhaskara, named after visionary Indian scientists. They had low resolution TV cameras on board which only helped discern objects a few km. in length or width.
Now, Indian technology had improved to such an extent that its satellites could discern objects on the ground less than a metre in dimension. In other words, every car on the road could be identified and pinpointed.
However, most of the data obtained was used for planning purposes, for appropriate layouts for infrastructure, assessing the utilisation of land for agriculture, forestry, water storage and so on. Some of the biggest benefits of remote sensing satellites had accrued in the areas of drinking water, farming and fishery.
Dr. Nair said that in the case of drinking water remote sensing images had helped identify spots that would yield water. Wells drilled with data provided by ISRO had given water nine times out of ten.
More than one lakh wells had been dug in the drought-hit areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan. The saving from non-yielding wells alone more than paid for the satellites put in orbit.
Similarly, it was possible to detect from space the possibilities of inundation of areas on account of floods, cyclones and so on. Such information provided to the authorities concerned helped mitigate the people’s hardships.
As for fishermen, satellites could help identify regions with lots of fish on the basis of sea colour, temperature and so on. This procedure had already become operational in the coastal areas of Gujarat, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh and the information was displayed in the villages. As a result, fishermen went directly to the spots indicated. This improved their catch and helped save fuel.
ISRO had also placed communications satellites in geostationary orbits. These provided a means for relaying signals from the ground and were a powerful means for communications, not only for telephony, voice and data, but also for DTH services where it was possible to get a bouquet of 150 to 200 channels with a small dish. This was enabled by the satellite KU-Band transponders.
Interestingly, the capacity of all the planned transponders had been consumed and there was now a shortage.
Dr. Nair said even the remotest parts of the country were connected through satellites which provided digital connectivity. Thanks to this, socially relevant projects such as telemedicine and tele-education had become a powerful tool for dissemination of knowledge and information.
One satellite carried educational programmes. It was possible to have an expert class at one place which could be beamed through the satellite all over the country wherever students assembled; all that was needed was a receiving terminal through which they could listen to the expert teacher and also interact with him/ her. Thus, it was a two-way process.
Nearly 35,000 virtual classrooms had been created and were connected through a satellite link. Management institutes and others were benefiting from this facility.
Thanks to tele-medicine, expert doctors were now available to remote villages, again with two-way connectivity through a satellite. Patient data from a village was communicated to the doctor through a satellite link; he/ she studied it and could even hold a teleconference with the patient. There was no need for patients to travel thousands of km. to see a doctor in a metro city.
About 150,000 patients were receiving this service through the network which covered about 350 establishments and had the potential of multiplying manifold.
Suggesting a holistic approach to disaster management, Dr. Nair said it was necessary to have a data base about the country’s features, the places where facilities were available and so on. The data base could be created both from ground reports and from satellite images.
If the inundation possibilities were identified by remote sensing satellites and all the data added to the data base, then continuous monitoring through satellites and the provision of a communication link through satellite would enable interaction between relief operators and others; this idea was also becoming a reality.
Finally, he touched on the finances involved in Chandrayaan-1.
“The Chandrayaan-1 was only the peak or flagship project of ISRO which consumed hardly 3% of the resources which were used in the space programme over four years; the remaining has gone towards achieving self-reliance in technology, whether in satellite building, rockets or applications.
“We have emerged as a world leader now and, to quote an aviation magazine, ‘India’s spaceprogramme was carried out on a shoestring budget’,” Dr. Nair concluded.
When the floor was thrown open for questions, Sitaram Shah wondered why he had not touched on climate change. Did satellites have no role in this area?
Dr. Nair said the omission was not deliberate; he just wanted to adhere to the time limit.