Chandrayaan-2 performs manoeuvre to avoid collision with NASA orbiter

Indias Chandrayaan2 spacecraft performed an evasive manoeuvre to avoid collision with NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LRO according to Indian Space Research Organisation ISROA very close conjunction between Chandrayaan2 Orbiter CH2O and LRO of NASA was expected to occur on October 20 this year at 0545 UTC 1115 am IST near the Lunar North pole the Bengaluruheadquartered space agency said in a statementOver a span of one week prior to the conjunction analyses by both ISRO and JPLNASA consistently showed that the radial separation between the two spacecraft would be less than 100 metres and the closest approach distance would be only about three km at the time of closest approachBoth the agencies deemed that the situation warranted a collision avoidance manoeuvre CAM to mitigate the close approach risk and it was mutually agreed that CH2O would undergo the CAMThe manoeuvre was scheduled on October 18 It was designed to ensure a sufficiently large radial separation at the next closest conjunction between the two spacecraftThe CAM was executed nominally at 1452 UTC 822 pm IST on October 18After orbit determination of CH2O with postmanoeuvre tracking data it was reconfirmed that there would be no further close conjunctions with LRO in the near future with the achieved orbit ISRO saidLike CH2O LRO orbits the Moon in a nearly polar orbit and hence both the spacecraft come close to each other over the Lunar polesIt is common for satellites in Earth Orbit to undergo CAM to mitigate collision risk due to space objects including space debris and operational spacecraftISRO said it regularly monitors such critical close approaches and execute CAMs for its operational satellites whenever the collision risk is assessed to be criticalHowever this is the first time such a critically close conjunction was experienced for a space exploration mission of ISRO which necessitated an evasive manoeuvre the statement saidThe event highlights the importance of continual assessment of close approach situations for Lunar and Martian missions and the fact that effective mitigation of close approach risk involves close coordination and synergy among different space agencies it was statedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever