WASHINGTON – US space agency Nasa has once again failed to locate India’sVikram lunar lander. A Nasa spacecraft took photos of the landing site ofthe Chandrayaan-2 lander earlier this month, but the images do not show thelander.
A Nasa scientist said this could be because the Vikram lander is lying in ashadowed part of the Moon or because the Chandrayaan-2 lander is locatedoutside the area the US space agency photographed.
Vikram lander lost contact with Earth during its descent on to the lunarsurface on September 7link.Despite several attempts to re-establish communication, the Chandrayaan-2lander remained out of touch. Vikram is likely dead after having gonethrough a cold lunar night during which its instruments would have frozenout of operationlink,India today has reported.
Ever since the Indian Space Research Organisation lost contact with Vikram,Nasa has made two attempts to locate the Chandrayaan-2 lander with the helpof its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.The LRO flew over Vikram’s landing siteonce on September 17 and next on October 14.
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On both occasions, the LRO took photos of the landing site. However,analysis of the images failed to locate Vikram on the Moon’s surface.
