Even as the entire nation hoped that NASA would be able to help us get a view of the Vikram lander before the lunar night begins, the US space agency has finally issued a statement saying that the lander may not have been in the field of view of the camera on-board its orbiter.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been orbiting the moon for 10 years, passed over the Vikram landing site on Tuesday. As per a statement from Joshua A Handal, public affairs officer, planetary science division, NASA, “the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) acquired images around the targeted landing site, but the exact location of the lander was not known so the lander may not be in the camera field of view.”
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lost contact with the lander of the country’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2, minutes before touchdown on the southern part of the moon on September 7.
The LROC team will compare the images taken on September 17 with previous ones of the site taken by it to see if the lander is visible. The results of the flyover will be made public after validation, analysis, and review.
Also Read: ‘Howdy Modi’ and Trump: How secure are the world’s two most powerful leaders?
Currently, it is lunar dusk at the site where Vikram was supposed to make a soft-landing on September 7. This means the sun is lower in the horizon with relief features casting long shadows.
“LRO flew over the area of the Vikram landing site on Sept. 17 when the local lunar time was near dusk; large shadows covered much of the area… It [the lander] may be in the shadow…,” Handal said.
The NASA orbiter will fly over the landing site again on October 14, which would be close to lunar noon and the lighting conditions would be favourable for getting better images.
By then, any hopes of communicating with the lander would be lost as the lunar night, which begins on September 21, will lead to temperatures in the area plummeting to -180 degree. A flyover of the NASA orbiter above the landing site does not help in re-establishing communication but only helps the scientists in understanding what went wrong.
ISRO had also taken thermal images of the lander just a day after the landing went wrong, which have not been released yet.