Chandrayaan 2: NASA releases high-resolution images of Vikram's landing site
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), on Friday, released high-resolution images of the targeted landing site of India’s Chandrayaan-2, Vikram lander. The images were captured through the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) during its flyby of the lunar region. https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1177326999657943060?s=20 NASA said in a tweet, "Our LRO mission imaged the targeted landing site of India’s Chandrayaan-2 lander, Vikram. The images were taken at dusk, and the team was not able to locate the lander. More images will be taken in October during a flyby in favorable lighting." Vikram lander of Chandrayaan 2 attempted a soft landing on September 7 on a small patch of the lunar highland smooth plains between Simpelius N and Manzinus C craters. However, Vikram had a hard landing, which resulted in disruption of communications. "It was dusk when the landing area was imaged and thus large shadows covered much of the terrain; it is possible that the Vikram lander is hiding in a shadow," NASA said. Also Read: Crash landing may not have botched Chandrayaan 2 mission: Former ISRO director NASA said a fresh attempt would be made in better lighting. "Lighting will be favorable when LRO passes over the site in October and once again attempts to locate and image the lander." Meanwhile, ISRO Chief K Sivan on Thursday said, "Chandrayaan 2 orbiter is doing very well. All payload operations have commenced, it's doing extremely well. We have got no signal from lander but orbiter is working very well. A national level committee is now analysing what really went wrong with the lander." According to him, after the committees submits the report, a future plan will be chalked out. “Necessary approvals and other processes are required. We are working on that," he said. -PTC News
