Hopeless situation:
Right from 29th of August 2009, the Indian mars probe satellite Chandrayaan-1 has been missing from its orbit, with even the ISRO scientists finding it hard to find the exact orbit of the lost satellite. The size of the satellite and the sunlight reflected from the moon's surface made it extremely impossible to track this India's historic satellite.
Radio wave reflection mechanism to the rescue...
But the satellite could not escape from being identified by NASA's very own powerful radio telescopes located at Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex and at National Science Foundation's premises. The telescopes have tracked the lost satellite by emitting radio waves on Chandrayaan-1's surface and by listening to the echoes which reflected from the satellite's surface.
ISRO's reaction:
Former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, Mr. Kasturi Rangan who was the brain behind this lunatic mission has praised NASA's efforts in identifying the lost satellite.
How it all happened?
The microwaves that bounced back from Chandrayaan-1's surface were received by Green Bank radio telescope to track the exact location of the satellite. The telescope received reflected waves at 2 different instances during its observation which lasted for about 4 hours. And based on calculations it was confirmed that the blips of reflected waves were indeed from ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 satellite which lost communication with ground station several years back!
What future holds?
Scientists at NASA believe that this could just be the beginning in their efforts to investigate interplanetary spaces using radar equipment. Also, Ground-based radars are expected to play a major role in future missions that involve both humans as well as robots to the lunar planet. With space getting filled with unwanted satellite junks every single day, it becomes necessary for us to improve our tracking technology in order to avoid any deadly collisions in the future!
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