Destination Moon - ISRO's Lunar Mission Set For October

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http://www.livemint.com/2008/09/18232516/Destination-moon-Isro8217s.html
Bangalore: The Indian Space Research Organisation, or Isro, plans to
launch its lunar mission in October, marking the start of a two-year
quest to learn more about the evolution of the moon and map its
surface for minerals such as helium-3, or He-3.
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I hope someone in Washington D.C. is looking up, nudge, nudge. :-)
- LRK -

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http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/52664/full-hunters-moon-night-of-october-14-15
The Hunter's Moon is the name for the full moon that immediately
follows the Harvest Moon. In the northern hemisphere, the Harvest Moon
is the full moon closest to the September equinox.
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http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/time/moon/
Phases of the Moon 2008 - month by month
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Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
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http://www.livemint.com/2008/09/18232516/Destination-moon-Isro8217s.html
Destination moon: Isro's lunar mission set for October launch
Posted: Thu, Sep 18 2008. 11:25 PM IST
K. Raghu

Bangalore: The Indian Space Research Organisation, or Isro, plans to
launch its lunar mission in October, marking the start of a two-year
quest to learn more about the evolution of the moon and map its
surface for minerals such as helium-3, or He-3.

Isro will launch Chandrayaan-1, the unmanned spacecraft, between 19
and 26 October, officials at the space agency said on Thursday.

The spacecraft, which weighs 590kg, will be fitted with 11 scientific
instruments, including five from the US, Sweden, Japan, Germany and
Bulgaria. These instruments and cameras would look for water on the
moon, besides mapping the chemical, soil and mineral characteristics
of its surface.

The Indian mission will also be the first to map the entire surface of
the moon, including the polar regions where frozen water could be
found, said T.K. Alex, director of Isro's satellite centre in
Bangalore, at a press conference.

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http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Moon_Mission_In_Dec_If_ISRO_Misses_October_Date_999.html
Moon Mission In Dec If ISRO Misses October Date
by Staff Writers
New Delhi, India (PTI) Sep 22, 2008

India's maiden moon mission could begin its space odyssey in December
if it misses its earliest launch window of October 19-26, former ISRO
chief Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan has said.

The cyclone season in the Bay of Bengal extends all through November
which rules out the possibility of space launches, he said.

Chandrayaan-I, which is being assembled at the ISRO Satellite Centre
in Bangalore, will be launched from the Satish Dhawan spaceport at
Sriharikota on the eastern coast.

The spacecraft, which will orbit the moon at a distance of 100 km, was
unveiled in Bangalore last week. It is yet to undergo vibration and
acoustic tests.

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http://indiapost.com/article/techbiz/3605/
Moon mission likely in October: ISRO
Sunday, 08.17.2008, 11:35pm (GMT-7)

CHENNAI: India's "ambitious" unmanned lunar mission `Chandrayan' is
likely to soar into the skies in October second week, Indian Space
Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair said."The satellite
integration is almost complete. And we would be entering the thermovac
soon. It takes about 45-50 days for the launch after thermovac, after
which we would declare the date," he told reporters here.

"The earliest is October," he said. As for the climatic conditions,
October was favorable, and ISRO has to look at the appropriate
alignment between planets also before deciding on the launch window,
he said."We do not have the flexibility of launching the mission on
any date," he added. "The payloads have been integrated at the
satellite centre in Bangalore...You can see the full spacecraft
there," Nair said about the Rs 3.8 billion unmanned mission.

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http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=178382
India to launch Chandrayaan-1 moon mission in October

NEW DELHI (Xinhua) -- Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)
announced on Thursday that it is all set to launch the country's first
unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 to the moon, according to the Indian
Express Friday.

The spacecraft is scheduled for launch on October 22, five years after
the Indian government cleared the project. It will make an entry into
the lunar atmosphere for a two-year mission.

It will be loaded with six Indian and five foreign scientific instruments.

It has overcome a major hurdle in the form of extreme temperature
tests over the past fortnight. Now its launch is dependent on weather
factors, said ISRO moon mission director Annadurai.

""Weather is a key issue. We are watching for forecasts closer to the
tentative launch dates,"" Annadurai said. Chandrayaan-1 would take
approximately eight days to course the nearly 386,000 km to get to its
final orbit -- 100 km from the moon.

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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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