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No signals have been received from the lander, but attempts are underway to establish communicationIndia’s Chandrayaan-2 orbiter circling the moon has spotted the country’s lost Vikram lander on the lunar surface, but there is still no signal from the lander, according to Indian media reports. K Sivan, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said today (Sept. 8) that the Vikram lander was located by Chandrayaan-2 and efforts to restore contact the probe will continue for at least 14 days, according to a Times of Indiareport. “We have found the location of Lander Vikram on [the] lunar surface and Orbiter has clicked a thermal image of Lander,†Sivan told the ANI news service in an interview, adding that attempts to communicate with the lander are ongoing.More at link.
Gee, How hard can it be to land on the moon? We did it in 1969 with nothing but slide rules and American Exceptionalism..
Maybe they should have waited until a full moon so they'd have a bigger target?
A team at Isro Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network here has been desperately trying to restore the link with the lander."With the right orientation, it can still generate power and recharge batteries with solar panels. But it looks less and less probable, progressively," the official said.Another top Isro official said "hard-landing" of Vikram on the Lunar surface has made the task of linking again with it that much difficult as it may not have the "right orientation (to receive signals)"."Impact shock may have caused damage to the lander," he claimed.Isro has not RPT not commented on the condition of the 1,471-kg lander of Chandrayaan-2 -- first Indian mission to explore the lunar terrain with home-grown technology -- and named after Dr Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme.