The National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States will be sharing before and after images of the site where Chandrayaan 2 made a hard landing.
US space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has promulgated that it will “share any before and after flyover imagery of the area around the targeted Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander landing site to support analysis by the Indian Space Research Organization”. The Vikram lander lost communication with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) after making a hard landing on September 7.
Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will pass over the Vikram lander on September 17. The orbiter will take images of the area and will share them with ISRO for analysis.
NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) is also sending radio signals in order to make contact with the Vikram lander. Meanwhile, ISRO is also trying to communicate with the lander by using the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu near Bengaluru. The Vikram lander has not transmitted any signal since September 7.
India’s attempt to become the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon faced a setback on September 7. Chandrayaan 2’s Vikram lander lost contact with the space station when the former was just 2.1 km above the lunar surface. The Vikram lander and Pragyaan rover were designed to last just one lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 Earth days.
Meanwhile, General Larry James, deputy director of Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL) that runs the Deep Space Network of Nasa, along with Prof David Tirrell, Provost of California Institute of Technology (CalTech), USA, visited the ISRO headquarters on Thursday. The purpose of the visit was revealed by ISRO.
