Click to play videoNew Delhi: The survey spacecraft of India's mission to the moon, Chandaryaan 1 has developed a navigational problem.
Chandrayaan's star sensor has failed, creating doubts on whether it will continue to work for the next two years.
The spacecraft which entered the lunar orbit last November can no longer orient itself with high precision.
The Lunar craft has been raised 200 km around the moon. It is now navigated by an onboard antennae. Raising it reduces the navigation or monitoring.
Scientist hope they can increase its life span this way.
Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G Madhavan Nair spoke exclusively to CNN-IBN on telephone.
The ISRO Chairman said, "All primary mission objectives of the Chandrayaan have already been accomplished. The failure of the star sensors does not really affect the mission."
Speaking about what could have caused the glitches, Nair ruled out any construction or manufaturing problem in the star sensors. He said, "This could be due to extreme temperatrues or radiation that is encountered on the surface of the moon. Star sensors in the past have worked for a period of five years or so. Higher level of radiation and temperatures on the moon's surface may have caused the snag. Environmental factors could have affected the star sensors."
Asked about how ISRO is getting around the problem, G Madhavan Nair said, "There has been absolutely no compromise in the mission. Other components are all working properly. The Chandrayaan's direction needs to be set and for that the gyroscopes can do as well as star sensors when required."
The gyroscopes are setting the orbital parameters of Chandrayaan and are providing the direction update on the lunar space module.
Nair said, "In every two or three days we update the direction and the Chandrayaan carries on its mission."
Asked whether such hiccups in scientific missions dampen the spirits of scientists at ISRO, Nair replied in the negative.
"Not exactly. Space missions are complex and one does expect problems to come up some time or the other due to various factors encountered in space. we have set-ups to overcome such problems."
Answering on how the star sensors will be fixed, the ISRO Chairman said that the star sesnor failure is a permanent problem and cannot be fixed. ISRO is not worried about the further progress of the mission as the gyroscopes which have been deployed in the place of the star sensors are working fine.
ISRO scientists have been updating the position from the ground and the software required for that has been updated.
With no more technical glitches cropping up, ISRO scientists expect the mission to progress to its slated mission.
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