Chandrayaan-2: NASA takes new pictures of Vikram Lander's landing site

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in another attempt to locate Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) took fresh images on Monday, October 14. The images were taken in better lighting conditions compared to the last time when LRO ed images on September 27.

Earlier, NASA has stated that lander Vikram had a hard-landing. NASA released high-resolution images captured by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) during its flyby of the lunar region where India's ambitious Chandrayaan 2 mission attempted a soft landing near the Moon's uncharted south pole. However, NASA's statement has also said that it will attempt to capture the picture of Vikram lander once again, assuming that it may be hiding behind the shadows.

READ | Chandrayaan 2 | 'Vikram Must Have Done A Hard-landing': ISRO To PTI

This was the second time when NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) passed over the area where Vikram Lander made a hard landing on September 7 and took images of the area. Scientists are currently studying the images taken by LRO and hoping to locate Vikram Lander. If located, it will be a major breakthrough for the scientists that will also help in knowing what actually happened to Lander when it lost communication with ISRO.

READ | 'ISRO Needs To Explore Fate Of Vikram Lander', Say US Experts

India's moon mission: Chandrayaan 2

Chandrayaan 2 is India's moon mission with which it attempted to land-soft at the south pole of the moon. As Vikram lander of Chandrayaan 2 was about to touchdown the lunar surface, in the morning at 1:50 AM, ISRO's Deep Space Antenna lost communication with Chandrayaan-2's lander- Vikram. The lander had descended from 30km to 2km smoothly, informed ISRO.

READ | Vikram Lander Had Hard Landing: NASA On Its Images From Moon's Surface

During the final smooth braking stage, it had lost communication with Mission Control. Vikram was aimed at soft-landing on the moon, making India the fourth country to do so. After the hard-landing of Vikram Lander on the lunar surface, ISRO had expressed hopes that they have at least 14 days to establish contact but hasn't been able to communicate with it so far. National Committee of academicians and ISRO experts are analyzing the cause of communication loss with Vikram Lander.

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