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NASA fails to find Indian moon lander 'Vikram' and releases images of empty landing site three weeks after it crashed into the lunar surface
PUBLISHED: 11:07, 27 September 2019 | UPDATED: 11:13, 27 September 2019
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NASA has failed to spot the remnants of India's doomed moon lander, Vikram, despite desperate attempts to locate the craft at its intended landing site.
NASA was one of the last hopes for the mission and the Indian space agency (ISRO) as they scrabble to reestablish connection with the craft.
Vikram was part of India's Chandrayaan-2 mission which had hoped to make history and turn India into just the fourth nation to successfully land on the moon.
India had intended to follow in the footsteps of space behemoths China, the US and the USSR but instead fell to the same disappointing demise as Israel, who also failed in their aim of landing on the moon earlier this year.
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NASA has revealed that it has failed to spot the location of India's doomed moon lander Vikram despite desperate attempts to locate the craft at its intended landing site
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Pictured, a NASA image of the targeted landing site of India's Chandrayaan-2 lander, Vikram, which the space agency has said they have not been able to spot
WHAT IS CHANDRAYAAN-2?
Chandrayaan-2 is the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) second lunar probe. It is comprised of three modules, an Orbiter, a Lander called Vikram, and a Rover called Pragyan.
The Orbiter has a terrain mapping camera to help prepare 3D maps of the moon's surface, an X-ray spectrometer looking for major elements including titanium and sodium, and another high resolution camera to help the other modules land safely.
Vikram has an instrument to detect seismic activity on the moon, and a thermal probe that will examine the thermal conductivity of the lunar surface.
Pragyan has an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer that examines the elemental composition of the surface and a laser induced breakdown spectroscope which looks at the abundance of various elements nearby.
The entire mission has cost around 10 billion rupees (£120million).
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Chandrayan-2 (pictured) successfully released its rover, Vikram, from the orbiter and sent it towards the moon earlier this month
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Student walk past a screen during a live streaming of Chandrayaan-2 landing at an educational institute in Mumbai, India, September 7, 2019 before it crashes
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NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (pictured) scanned the intended landing site Looked at more than 92 miles of the area where Vikram was supposed to be
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An official statement from ISRO earlier in the week of the attempted landing said all the systems controlling the Vikram lander and its rover, Pragyan, were 'healthy'
Meet Pragyan - Chandrayaan 2's Rover that will land on the moon
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From there, the six-wheeled rover Pragyan would spend two weeks exploring an uncharted region and carrying out topographical studies, mineralogical analyses and other experiments in a bid to help the world gain a better understanding of the moon's origins.
Chandrayaan-2, was intended to study permanently shadowed moon craters that contain water deposits, which was confirmed by the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008.
The latest mission lifted off on July 22 from the Satish Dhawan space centre in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
After its launch, Chandrayaan-2 spent several weeks making its way towards the moon, ultimately entering lunar orbit on August 20.
The Vikram lander separated from the mission's orbiter on September 2 and began a series of braking manoeuvres to lower its orbit and ready itself for landing.
There's now much uncertainty as to what actually happened as Vikram got closer to the surface.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was filmed consoling visibly distraught ISRO staff after they lost contact with the lander on Friday night.
In a subsequent formal address to the scientists and the nation, he hinted that the lander might have travelled at a higher-than-expected speed and crash landed on the moon.
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India's Moon mission: Chandrayaan-2 was intended to be a ground-breaking mission to the south pole of the moon and hoped to land on a high plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N, which are around 70° south
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Israel attempted to land on the moon earlier this year but the mission ended in disaster when the Beresheet spacecraft fell into an uncontrolled descent
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) says it plans to analyse the data to find out what went wrong.
Prime Minister Modi, who was present at the ISRO centre, told scientists : 'There are ups and downs in life ... What you have accomplished is no small achievement.'
He added: 'If historians some day write about today's incident, they will certainly say that inspired by our romantic description of the moon throughout life, Chandrayaan, in the last leg of the journey, rushed to embrace the moon.'
Modi said that though India 'came very close' it needs to 'cover more ground' in the times to come. 'I can proudly say that the effort was worth it and so was the journey.'
'We are full of confidence that when it comes to our space program, the best is yet to come,' Modi said.
Sivan had earlier described the final moments of the landing mission as '15 minutes of terror,' due to the complexities involved with lunar gravity, terrain and dust.
ISRO also sent an orbiter to space with the mission, which will continue to make observations around the moon.
They hoped to release a rover after the landing, which would then spend a fortnight – a single day in moon time – exploring.
The lander was named Vikram after the father of India's space program, Vikram Sarabhai.
- India's moon lander failed to complete its mission on September 6
- It is thought to be in one piece but efforts to find it by NASA have failed
- NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter scanned the intended landing site
- Looked at more than 92 miles of the area where Vikram was supposed to be
PUBLISHED: 11:07, 27 September 2019 | UPDATED: 11:13, 27 September 2019
- e-mail
View comments
NASA has failed to spot the remnants of India's doomed moon lander, Vikram, despite desperate attempts to locate the craft at its intended landing site.
NASA was one of the last hopes for the mission and the Indian space agency (ISRO) as they scrabble to reestablish connection with the craft.
Vikram was part of India's Chandrayaan-2 mission which had hoped to make history and turn India into just the fourth nation to successfully land on the moon.
India had intended to follow in the footsteps of space behemoths China, the US and the USSR but instead fell to the same disappointing demise as Israel, who also failed in their aim of landing on the moon earlier this year.
Scroll down for video
+9
NASA has revealed that it has failed to spot the location of India's doomed moon lander Vikram despite desperate attempts to locate the craft at its intended landing site
+9
Pictured, a NASA image of the targeted landing site of India's Chandrayaan-2 lander, Vikram, which the space agency has said they have not been able to spot
WHAT IS CHANDRAYAAN-2?
Chandrayaan-2 is the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) second lunar probe. It is comprised of three modules, an Orbiter, a Lander called Vikram, and a Rover called Pragyan.
The Orbiter has a terrain mapping camera to help prepare 3D maps of the moon's surface, an X-ray spectrometer looking for major elements including titanium and sodium, and another high resolution camera to help the other modules land safely.
Vikram has an instrument to detect seismic activity on the moon, and a thermal probe that will examine the thermal conductivity of the lunar surface.
Pragyan has an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer that examines the elemental composition of the surface and a laser induced breakdown spectroscope which looks at the abundance of various elements nearby.
The entire mission has cost around 10 billion rupees (£120million).
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+9
Chandrayan-2 (pictured) successfully released its rover, Vikram, from the orbiter and sent it towards the moon earlier this month
+9
Student walk past a screen during a live streaming of Chandrayaan-2 landing at an educational institute in Mumbai, India, September 7, 2019 before it crashes
+9
NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (pictured) scanned the intended landing site Looked at more than 92 miles of the area where Vikram was supposed to be
+9
An official statement from ISRO earlier in the week of the attempted landing said all the systems controlling the Vikram lander and its rover, Pragyan, were 'healthy'
Meet Pragyan - Chandrayaan 2's Rover that will land on the moon
Loaded: 0%
Progress: 0%
0:00
Previous
Play
Skip
Mute
Current Time0:00
/
Duration Time3:45
Fullscreen
Need Text
From there, the six-wheeled rover Pragyan would spend two weeks exploring an uncharted region and carrying out topographical studies, mineralogical analyses and other experiments in a bid to help the world gain a better understanding of the moon's origins.
Chandrayaan-2, was intended to study permanently shadowed moon craters that contain water deposits, which was confirmed by the Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008.
The latest mission lifted off on July 22 from the Satish Dhawan space centre in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
After its launch, Chandrayaan-2 spent several weeks making its way towards the moon, ultimately entering lunar orbit on August 20.
The Vikram lander separated from the mission's orbiter on September 2 and began a series of braking manoeuvres to lower its orbit and ready itself for landing.
There's now much uncertainty as to what actually happened as Vikram got closer to the surface.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was filmed consoling visibly distraught ISRO staff after they lost contact with the lander on Friday night.
In a subsequent formal address to the scientists and the nation, he hinted that the lander might have travelled at a higher-than-expected speed and crash landed on the moon.
+9
India's Moon mission: Chandrayaan-2 was intended to be a ground-breaking mission to the south pole of the moon and hoped to land on a high plain between two craters, Manzinus C and Simpelius N, which are around 70° south
+9
Israel attempted to land on the moon earlier this year but the mission ended in disaster when the Beresheet spacecraft fell into an uncontrolled descent
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) says it plans to analyse the data to find out what went wrong.
Prime Minister Modi, who was present at the ISRO centre, told scientists : 'There are ups and downs in life ... What you have accomplished is no small achievement.'
He added: 'If historians some day write about today's incident, they will certainly say that inspired by our romantic description of the moon throughout life, Chandrayaan, in the last leg of the journey, rushed to embrace the moon.'
Modi said that though India 'came very close' it needs to 'cover more ground' in the times to come. 'I can proudly say that the effort was worth it and so was the journey.'
'We are full of confidence that when it comes to our space program, the best is yet to come,' Modi said.
Sivan had earlier described the final moments of the landing mission as '15 minutes of terror,' due to the complexities involved with lunar gravity, terrain and dust.
ISRO also sent an orbiter to space with the mission, which will continue to make observations around the moon.
They hoped to release a rover after the landing, which would then spend a fortnight – a single day in moon time – exploring.
The lander was named Vikram after the father of India's space program, Vikram Sarabhai.
