ISRO performs Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre, avoids Chandrayaan-2 collision with NASA's moon orbiter

Bengaluru, November 17: In its first kind of mission in its space exploration mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) carried out evasive measures and has saved the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter from colliding with Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) over the Moon’s north pole.

 

According to the space agency, ISRO performed a Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre (CAM) on the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter in October to avoid an incident that could have triggered a major debris field and a massive loss for the agency. This was the first close approach manoeuvre that ISRO has undertaken for a space exploration mission.

 

Very close conjunction between the Indian and the US orbiters, both of which are in a polar orbit that crosses over both poles of the moon, was expected to occur on October 20 at 11.15 am. At that time, the distance between the orbits of the two spacecraft would have been less than 100m. The satellites would have been at a distance of just about 3 km at the time of closest approach, Isro said. This was a very small distance for fast-moving satellites that travel several kilometers in a second.

 

At that time, both Isro and NASA realised that a manoeuver was needed to mitigate a collision. It was mutually agreed that the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter would be moved to ensure that there is a large separation during their next close conjunction. The manoeuver was carried out on October 18 at 8.22 pm.

 

 

 

"After orbit determination of CH2O (Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter) with post-maneuver tracking data, it was reconfirmed that there would be no further close conjunctions with LRO in the near future with the achieved orbit," Isro said in a statement.

 

In the statement, ISRO further said that it was common for satellites in Earth’s orbit to perform Collision Avoidance Manoeuvres for the mitigation of collision risks with space objects including space debris and operational spacecraft. It said, "…CH2O, LRO orbit the Moon in a nearly polar orbit and hence, both the spacecraft come close to each other over the Lunar poles. It is common for satellites in Earth Orbit to undergo Collision Avoidance Manoeuvres to mitigate collision risk due to space objects including space debris and operational spacecraft."

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