ISRO will contact Chandrayaan-2's Vikram Lander for next 14 days
What's the story
Hours after Chandrayaan-2 Lander went silent during descent on the Moon, K Sivan, the Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, has said that their scientists have not given up hope on the mission. He emphasized that the team at ISRO is working to contact the Vikram Lander and will continue to do so over the next 14 days. Here's all about it.
Communication link
Chandrayaan-2 Lander stopped communicating during descent
To note, Chandrayaan-2's Vikram Lander was ready to touch down on the lunar South Pole in the early hours of September 7. It detached from Orbiter, lowered its orbit, and began a powered-descent towards the lunar surface. However, in the final moments of the landing, something went wrong and Vikram stopped sending signals back home, leaving its fate a complete mystery.
Effort
However, ISRO has not given up hope, says Sivan
When Vikram stopped responding, Sivan announced that the descent was executed normally up to an altitude of 2.1kms. For what happened after, the ISRO boss said that the data is still being analyzed. And now, in the first statement since then, he has stated that their scientists are trying to re-establish the link and would continue to do that for the next 14 days.
Execution
Faulty execution in the last phase
Sivan didn't say much about what went wrong during the landing, but he did note that the final phase of the landing wasn't executed properly. "The last part of the operation was not executed in the right manner," he told Doordarshan, adding that "it was in that phase that we lost the link with the lander, and could not establish contact subsequently."
Orbiter
Orbiter still working normally, circling the Moon
Sivan further claimed that the Orbiter element of the mission is functioning normally and has got extra fuel, which means it would work for 6-7 years instead of the planned one year. It will cover the entire surface of the Moon and take several high-resolution images for observational studies, he said, adding that the mission is very close to 100% success.