"it looks less and less probable, progressively."
India’s Vikram Lander that was used for their moon mission was found on the lunar surface on September 8, 2019, one day after it lost contact with the space station.
The head of the nation’s space agency said that efforts are being made to try to establish contact with it.
However, experts have said that time is running out and the possibility of re-establishing communication is becoming less likely.
Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K Sivan explained that cameras from the moon mission’s orbiter had located the lander.
He said: “It must have been a hard landing.”
Sivan said that the space agency will try and establish a link with the lander for 14 days as it was designed to function for that length of time or one lunar day.
But hopes are fading as one official said: “But it looks less and less probable, progressively.”
The official did add that with “the right orientation”, it could still generate power and recharge its batteries with solar panels.
However, the task of re-establishing a link may be difficult as the lander may not have landed on its four legs and could have sustained damage.
The ISRO official added: “Impact shock may have caused damage to the lander.”
The space agency explained that it lost contact with the Vikram Lander on September 7, 2019, as it made its final approach to the moon‘s south pole to deploy a rover to search for signs of water.
Had it been successful, India would have been just the fourth country to land a spacecraft on the moon, and only the third to operate a robotic rover there.
India would have landed a vessel on the moon after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China.
The lander’s descent had been normal until it was 1.2 miles from the moon.
The mission cost around $140 million and was known as Chandrayaan-2. It was planned to study shadowed moon craters that are believed to contain water deposits that were confirmed by Chandrayaan-1 in 2008.
The lander is called Vikram after Dr Vikram Sarabhai who is the father of the Indian space programme.
Chandrayaan-2 lifted off on July 22, 2019, from the Satish Dhawan space centre in Sriharikota, an island near Andhra Pradesh.
Several weeks were spent making its way to the moon until it entered lunar orbit on August 20.
The Vikram Lander separated from the mission’s orbiter on September 2 and began several braking manoeuvres to lower its orbit and ready itself for landing.
Loading ...