Chandrayaan-2

Chandrayaan-2: NASA Moon Orbiter Probe to Fly over Vikram Landing Site

Chandrayaan-2 was an ambitious three-part mission of India, with an obiter settled into circling the moon and a lender a rover that was meant to make a soft touchdown on September 6.

But during the landing process, the Vikram lander went silent and ISRO has been trying to establish contact with the Vikram lander since September 7.

To find what happened to the Chandrayaan-II mission's Vikram lander, now the US space agency NASA's lunar probe will be flying over the crash-landing site.

It will release images of the lander Vikram, as mentioned in reports by US media. NASA will share any before and after flyover imagery of the area around the targeted Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander landing site to support analysis by ISRO. Meanwhile, ISRO is also trying to establish communication.

Earlier, NASA had also tried establishing contact with Vikram. The agency's Jet Propulsion laboratory had beamed a radio frequency to the lander to elicit a response after the crucial part of Chandrayaan 2 didn't go as planned. As per the report in The Times of India, the space agency has reportedly activated its deep space network to try and get in touch with Vikram.

Presently, it looks like a race against time as the period of 14 days to make contact with Vikram lander swiftly closes. The period is the only time the region will be exposed to the Sun's rays, enabling the lander, fitted with solar panels, to operate. After 14 days, it will be too cold for lander Vikram to operate.