ISRO - Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission logo.
Sept. 8, 2019
India's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter circling the moon has spotted the country's lost Vikram lander on the lunar surface, but there is still no signal from the lander, according to Indian media reports.
Images of Lunar Surface captured by Terrain Mapping Camera -2 (TMC-2) of Chandrayaan 2
K Sivan, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said today (Sept. 8) that the Vikram lander was located by Chandrayaan-2 and efforts to restore contact the probe will continue for at least 14 days, according to a Times of India report.
"We have found the location of Lander Vikram on [the] lunar surface and Orbiter has clicked a thermal image of Lander," Sivan told the ANI news service in an interview, adding that attempts to communicate with the lander are ongoing.
Image Above: The Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-2 moon orbiter is shown studying the lunar surface from above in this still image from a video animation.
Chandrayaan-2 mission was a highly complex mission, which represented a significant technological leap compared to the previous missions of ISRO, which brought together an Orbiter, Lander and Rover to explore the unexplored south pole of the Moon.
Since the launch of Chandrayaan-2 on July 22, 2019, not only India but the whole world watched its progress from one phase to the next with great expectations and excitement. This was a unique mission which aimed at studying not just one area of the Moon but all the areas combining the exosphere, the surface as well as the sub-surface of the moon in a single mission.
Chandrayaan - 2 About Vikram Lander
The Orbiter has already been placed in its intended orbit around the Moon and shall enrich our understanding of the moon’s evolution and mapping of the minerals and water molecules in the Polar Regions, using its eight state-of-the-art scientific instruments. The Orbiter camera is the highest resolution camera (0.3m) in any lunar mission so far and shall provide high resolution images which will be immensely useful to the global scientific community. The precise launch and mission management has ensured a long life of almost 7 years instead of the planned one year.
Chandrayaan 2 - About Pragya Rover
The Vikram Lander followed the planned descent trajectory from its orbit of 35 km to just below 2 km above the surface. All the systems and sensors of the Lander functioned excellently until this point and proved many new technologies such as variable thrust propulsion technology used in the Lander. The success criteria was defined for each and every phase of the mission and till date 90 to 95% of the mission objectives have been accomplished and will continue contribute to Lunar science , notwithstanding the loss of communication with the Lander.
Related articles:
Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Moon lander lost signal
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/09/chandrayaan-2-vikram-moon-lander-lost.html
Chandrayaan-2 managed to get into lunar orbit
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/08/chandrayaan-2-managed-to-get-into-lunar.html
GSLV MkIII-M1 Successfully Launches Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/07/gslv-mkiii-m1-successfully-launches.html
Moon mission for an Indian probe
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/07/moon-mission-for-indian-probe.html
GSLV-Mk III - M1 / Chandrayaan-2 Mission: https://www.isro.gov.in/launcher/gslv-mk-iii-m1-chandrayaan-2-mission
Related link:
India Space Research Organisation (ISRO): https://www.isro.gov.in/
Images, Videos, Text, Credits: ISRO/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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