Bangalore: A national-level committee comprising academics and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) experts are analysing the cause of communication loss with Chandrayaan-2 lander ‘Vikram’ ahead of its planned soft landing on the lunar surface, the space agency said Thursday.
ISRO also informed that the orbiter of the India’s second lunar mission continued to perform scheduled science experiments to ‘complete satisfaction’ and performance of all its payloads were ‘satisfactory’.
“All payloads of orbiter are powered. Initial trials for orbiter payloads are completed successfully. Performance of all orbiter payloads is satisfactory. Orbiter continues to perform scheduled science experiments to complete satisfaction,” ISRO said in an update on its website.
“National-level committee consisting of academicians and ISRO experts are analysing the cause of communication loss with lander,” the organization added.
Lander ‘Vikram’, with rover ‘Pragyan’ housed inside it, lost communication with ground station September7, just 2.1 kms above the lunar surface, minutes before the planned touch-down on the Moon. Efforts to reestablish the link are on since then, but hopes of a positive result appear to be fading away.
ISRO had said September 8 that the lander was spotted on the lunar surface by camera on-board of the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. Vikram had a hard-landing.
The Chandrayaan-2 is a Rs 978 crore unmanned moon mission with the satellite alone costing Rs 603 crore while the launch vehicle Rs 375 crore.
PTI