Bengaluru:
The Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram module has been located on the lunar surface and it must have been a hard-landing, ISRO chairman K. Sivan said on Sunday, in an admission that the planned soft-landing wasn’t successful.
“Yes, we have located the lander on the lunar surface. It must have been a hard-landing,” Mr. Sivan told a news agency.
He said the lander rover Pragyan is housed inside it was located by on-board cameras of the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.
Asked if the lander was damaged during the hard-landing, he said, “That we do not know.”
Mr. Sivan said efforts to establish contact with the lander were continuing.
India’s mission to soft-land on the moon suffered a setback during the wee hours on Saturday, with ‘Vikram’ module losing communication with ground stations, just 2.1 km from the lunar surface during its final descent.
Considered as the most complex” stage of the country’s second expedition to the moon, the lander was on a powered decent for a soft-landing when it lost the communication.
The Chandrayaan-2s Vikram module has been located on the lunar surface and it must have been a hard-landing, ISRO chairman K. Sivan said on Sunday, in an admission that the planned soft-landing wasn’t successful.
“Yes, we have located the lander on the lunar surface. It must have been a hard-landing,” Mr. Sivan told a news agency.
He said the lander rover Pragyan is housed inside it was located by on-board cameras of the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.
Asked if the lander was damaged during the hard-landing, he said, “That we do not know.”
Mr. Sivan said efforts to establish contact with the lander were continuing.
India’s mission to soft-land on the moon suffered a setback during the wee hours on Saturday, with ‘Vikram’ module losing communication with ground stations, just 2.1 km from the lunar surface during its final descent.
Considered as the most complex” stage of the country’s second expedition to the moon, the lander was on a powered decent for a soft-landing when it lost the communication.
