LDALL CHANDRAYAAN 2

Nair said the snags in Chandrayaan I would not result in
delay of Chandrayaan II. "There are some marginal corrections
that would be applied for the mission," he said.

When asked about the responsibility for the abrupt end,
Nair quipped,`"only I am responsible."

"Today we are disappointed with the development. But have
managed to get the large volume of data. We went through that
and are contended with the results," Nair said conceding that
it will not be possible to retrieve the spacecraft.

"The mission was a great success. Before the launch we
had set up success criterias and technology objectives. We
have found that all the instruments on the spacecraft worked
satisfactorily and entire scientific instruments have
performed that is how we could collect large volume of data."

He said more detailed cause for the failure could
not be ascertained in the absence of telemetry signals which
helps to point the cause through correlation process.

"More than 70,000 images of the moon were captured. It
showed the most important region of surface. We had joint
experiments with NASA scientists wherein the signals from our
spacecraft was sent to US satellite which were captured
successfully," Nair added.

Nair said that the environment around the moon was much
more severe than what we anticipated.

He however took comfort from the fact that Chandrayaan-I
lasted nearly one year.

"We survived for 315 days which is a good record. Many
such experiments have burnt within a month in the past," he
stated.

Replying to a question, the ISRO chief said the
mission was not carved for two years but instead the
spacecraft was designed with a two-year lifespan.
"After seeing the spacecraft in difficulty, we tried to
maximise its utility," Nair said. (MORE) PTI