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For the Indian Space Research Organization, this may be the last chance to establish a form of communication with the Vikram Lander of Chandrayaan 2, the lunar night settling at the landing site before Saturday, plunging the temperature at -180 degrees.
A national committee is still examining the cause of the loss of communication on September 7 during the motorized descent phase.
The US Space Agency, which has launched a passive experiment on the Chandrayaan 2 mission, is also trying to collect as much information about the mission. NASA scientists are currently analyzing lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LAR) data that flew over Viktor Landing's planned landing site on September 17th.
During the 15-minute motorized descent on September 7, Isro scientists lost contact with the LG just 2.1 km above the lunar surface, about two minutes before the end of the landing maneuver.
"The lunar lunar reconnaissance camera (LROC) acquired images around the targeted landing site, but the exact location of the LG was not known and therefore could not be in the field of view of the camera, "said NASA officials in HT.
Watch: Chandrayaan 2: Localized Vikram Lander, Attempt to Make Contact
Besides not having the exact position of the LG in the field of view of the camera, the chances of observing the LG have also been reduced due to the lighting conditions . At the time NASA 's orbiter went to the landing site, dusk was lunar; the sun low in the horizon, the images have long shadows that could conceal the undercarriage.
"At the end of the day, the cameras on board at home and the NASA orbiter are trying to find an object a few meters away from a distance of nearly 100 km. This means that it would be captured in about four pixels, "said Jatan Mehta, former scientific leader of TeamIndus, a Bangalore-based private company that aims to send a terrestrial rover to the moon.
The third part of the mission – the Orbiter – bypassing the Moon in a circular orbit of nearly 100 km is proceeding as planned and will continue to collect data for nearly 7 years.
"All the payloads of the orbiter are powered and the initial tests of the payloads have been successfully completed. The performance of all the payloads of the orbiters are satisfactory and they continue to perform scheduled scientific experiments to achieve total satisfaction, "said ISRO in a statement.
This is the first official update of the Indian space agency after it announced that the orbiter had captured an image of the lander. A national committee composed of Isro academics and experts is currently analyzing the cause of the loss of communication with the LG.
"Isro already has telemetry data, which contains information on speed, altitude, thrust, etc., about 2.1 km from the surface of the moon. The images taken by the orbiters will provide details on the orientation of the undercarriage, whether it is slightly damaged or that parts are broken, its location and deviation from the intended trajectory will tell scientists if the landing gear collides the lunar surface at high speed. whether it's a disaster or what happened in the last moments, "said Dr. Nirupam Roy, an assistant professor of physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore.
First publication:
September 19, 2019 9:32 PM IST
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