Vikram Lander is yet to be spotted by NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the lunar highlands. Chandrayaan-2 lander, Vikram tried to make a soft landing on the south polar surface of the moon on September 7, 2019 (IST).
NASA’s LoR craft clicked picture during a flyby over the surface of the moon, in an effort to help in spotting the lunar lander. The effort, though in vain is a gesture of helping hand by NASA.
- The small patch of lunar highland plains picked as the landing spot, falling right in the middle of Simpelius N and Manzinus C craters. ISRO lost contact with the Vikram lander while it was still 2.1 km up above and away from the lunar surface. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter tried to click Chandrayaan-2 lander’s images but the attempt was in vain.
Chandrayaan-2 image by LoR:
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter collected image data on September 17 as it flew over what is supposed to be the landing site for ISROs Vikram lander.
The LOR Image is about 150 km in width at its centre but NASA is yet to spot the lander. Conditions will be more favourable for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter come October when it will orbit around the same surface area at a time with more light on the surface.
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- While ISRO claims to have found the Vikram lander through their Lunar Orbiter. The event was India Space Research Organisation’s first attempt to soft-land on the moon. The site of planned landing is located 600 Km from the Lunar South Pole which is relatively untouched by past missions.
- ISRO states to have found the exact location of the Lunar Lander Vikram since they lost connection with it. The team made efforts to reconnect to the lander for 14 consecutive days to no results.
- ISRO team and all of India is proud of the Chandrayaan-2’s effort. The lunar orbiter is going to stay in orbit for at least a year, according to plans, consequently, ISRO has said that their mission has been a success, achieving 90 to 95% of Chandrayaan-2’s target.
- The attempts to image the lander made by NASA is appreciated but is it really an attempt to help India? Many have argued that NASA came off a bit “egoistic” in their previous tweets. To those audiences, the attempts may come off as NASA trying to embarrass ISRO.
