Published 13:02 IST, December 3rd 2019
Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander spotted; Here are the images
The US space agency NASA confirmed that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has located the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan 2 mission on the surface of the moon
Soon after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed that it had located the Vikram lander of India's Chandrayaan-2 mission on the lunar surface, the US space agency released images of the impact site confirming the location of the lost Vikram lander. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) had unfortunately lost contact with the Vikram Lander of the Chandrayaan-2 just 2.1 km before landing on the south pole of the lunar surface which still remains unexplored. Earlier, on December 2, it was reported that even before NASA could locate the lander, an Indian techie, Shanmuga Subramanian had observed something out of the ordinary and contacted the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) project with positive identification of debris. After receiving this tip, the LROC team confirmed the identification by comparing before and after images. The NASA team, in its image also credited Subramanian for the findings.
Here are the images released by NASA:
This image shows the Vikram Lander impact point and associated debris field. Green dots indicate spacecraft debris (confirmed or likely). Blue dots locate disturbed soil, likely where small bits of the spacecraft churned up the regolith. "S" indicates debris identified by Shanmuga Subramanian. This portion of the Narrow Angle Camera mosaic was made from images M1328074531L/R and M1328081572L/R acquired Nov. 11.
Updated 14:21 IST, December 3rd 2019