ISRO releases images of Earth, Moon taken by Chandryaaan-3 cameras

Chennai: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday night released two images taken by the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which was launched from Sriharikota on July 14 and has moved to the moon’s surface and it was inserted into the Lunar Orbit on August five. The first image is of the Earth as viewed by the Lander Imager (LI) Camera. The photo was taken on July 14, when the Chandrayaan-3 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The second image is of the Moon captured by the Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera (LHVC) on board the spacecraft on August 6. ISRO tweeted: “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: viewed by Lander Imager (LI) Camera on the day of the launch, along with earth’s symbol & imaged by Lander Horizontal Velocity Camera (LHVC) a day after the Lunar Orbit Insertion–image of moon”. The Lander Imager (LI) camera on Chandrayaan-3 was developed by Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, and Lander Horizontal Velocity camera by Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS), Bengaluru. ISRO said the LI camera was developed by SAC, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and LHV camera by the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS), which is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka. ISRO had earlier released a video of the Moon, as viewed by the Chandrayaan-3 during Lunar Orbit Insertion, which took place on August 1. On August 9, ISRO carried out the third orbit reduction manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-3 and the Chandrayaan-3 is just 1,437 km away from the moon. The SAC is spread across two campuses having multi-disciplinary activities.

The core competence of the Centre lies in development of space borne and air borne instruments/payloads and their applications for national development and societal benefits. These applications are in diverse areas and primarily meet the communication, navigation and remote sensing needs of the country. Besides these, the Centre also contributed significantly in the scientific and planetary missions of ISRO like Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission, etc. The communication transponders developed at this Centre for the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) and Geo Synchronous Satellite (GSAT) series of satellites are used by government and private sector for VSAT, DTH, Internet, broadcasting, telephones etc. On the Main Engine and Stage Test Facility at SAC, it said this centre also designs and develops the optical and microwave sensors for the satellites, signal and image processing software, GIS software and many applications for Earth Observation (EO) programme of ISRO. These applications are in diverse areas of Geosciences, Agriculture, Environment and Climate Change, Physical Oceanography, Biological Oceanography, Atmosphere, Cryosphere, Hydrosphere, etc.

The facilities at SAC include highly sophisticated payload integration laboratories, electronic and mechanical fabrication facilities, environmental test facilities, systems reliability / assurance group, image processing and analysis facilities, project management support group and a well-stocked library. SAC has active collaborations with industry, academia, national and international institutes for research and development. The Centre also conducts nine-month post graduate diploma courses for students from the Asia Pacific region under the aegis of the Centre for Space Science and Technology Education (CSSTE-AP) in satellite meteorology and communication. On LEOS, ISRO said it is situated at Peenya Industrial Estate, Bengaluru where first India satellite was fabricated in 1975. LEOS, one of the vital units of ISRO, deals with the design, development and production of Attitude Sensors for all LEO, GEO and interplanetary mission; develops and delivers Optical Systems for remote sensing and meteorological payloads. It is equipped with world class fabrication, testing and coating facilities. Next generation technologies such as 3-axis Fiber Optics Gyro, Optical Communication, MEMS, Nanotechnology, Detectors and Development of Science Payloads for future space missions are also being pursued. UNI