New Delhi, India (CNN) — Scientists have turned off several instruments on board India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft to prevent temperatures rising inside it.
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The spacecraft carrying India's first lunar probe Chandrayaan 1 is taking off from Sriharikota.
Mylswamy Annadurai, head of the lunar exploration project, told CNN that Chandrayaan 1's temperature rose to 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit).
The increase was caused by the alignment of the spacecraft with the orbiting moon and sun, a phenomenon Annadurai said was not unexpected and would likely last until the end of December.
“We turned off the systems that didn’t need to be on,” Annadurai said, ruling out any possibility of damage and adding that temperatures had now dropped to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
Annadurai said heat on Chandrayaan 1 should not exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), but insisted the orbiter was designed to withstand temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit).
Chandrayaan 1 (Chandrayaan means “moon spacecraft” in Sanskrit) was successfully launched from southern India on October 22. Watch the video of India's first lunar rover launch »
The two-year mission is to take high-resolution, three-dimensional images of the lunar surface, especially the permanently shadowed polar regions. They will also search for evidence of water or ice and attempt to identify the chemical composition of specific lunar rocks, the group said.
Earlier this month, the Lunar Impact Rover separated from Chandrayaan 1 and successfully crash-landed on the lunar surface.
Officials said the TV-sized probe, decorated with a drawing of the Indian flag, crashed into the lunar surface at a speed of 5,760 kilometers per hour.
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Although the data was transmitted to Chandrayaan 1 before the collision, there was no intention of retrieving it afterwards.
Chandrayaan 1 is carrying payloads from the United States, the European Union and Bulgaria. India plans to share mission data with other programs, including NASA.
all medicine India • NASA