A NASA spacecraft that flew over the location where Vikram lander module of India’s Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission was supposed to have landed has been unable to locate the missing spacecraft. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which is circling the Moon since 2009, will fly over that location again on October 14 and make another attempt to find Vikram.
“LRO passed over the landing site on September 17 and acquired a set of high-resolution images of the area; so far the LROC (LRO Camera) team has not been able to identify the lander,” according to a statement posted on the LROC webpage, handled by a team at the Arizona State University.
It released images of the landing site. One of the images captured a 150-km swathe of territory around the site.
The Vikram lander had failed in its attempt to make a soft landing on the Moon’s surface. While 2.1 km above the Moon, it had deviated from its scheduled flight path, unable to slow itself down at the rate required to make a safe landing. Moments later, when it was barely 335 metres above the Moon’s surface, it also lost contact with the ground station.
More than 20 days after the failed landing, it is unlikely that ISRO does not know about the fate of the Vikram lander or its current state. ISRO has said a committee was examining data to reach a conclusion. A similar committee had been formed after the aborted launch of Chandrayaan-2 on July 15, as is done after every such incident. ISRO has still not officially said what problem had been found during the time of launch.
At that instant, Vikram was travelling at a speed of more than 200 km per hour.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has so far refused to say anything about Vikram’s eventual fate. A few days after the failed landing in the early hours of September 7, ISRO had said the Orbiter module of Chandrayaan-2 mission, which is functioning normally, had spotted Vikram and taken thermal images of the spacecraft. However, ISRO has neither released the thermal images nor explained why normal optical images could not be taken, either at that time or later.
The Orbiter makes several revolutions of the Moon in a single day.
The instruments on Vikram, and the embedded rover, Pragyaan, were designed to function only for 14 days after the scheduled touchdown on September 7. After that, a lunar night, equivalent of 14 days on Earth, descended on the Moon, during which temperatures dip to as low as minus 200 degrees Celsius in the area where Vikram is supposed to have landed.
Electronics on the instruments were not designed to withstand such low temperatures.
The LRO statement said when the spacecraft flew over the area on September 17, it was already dusk on the Moon, and it was possible that Vikram could be hiding behind the shadows.
“We note that it was dusk when the landing area was imaged and thus large shadows covered much of the terrain, perhaps the Vikram lander is hiding in a shadow. The lighting will be favorable when LRO passes over the site in October and LROC will attempt to image the lander at that time,” the statement said.
