Washington: The US space agency NASA released pictures of Vikram’s landing site on the lunar surface but failed to get the photo of the lander itself.
NASA said, “Vikram had a hard landing and the precise location of the spacecraft in the lunar highlands is yet to be determined. ”
The high resolution pictures were taken by a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC).
The site of Vikram Lander’s touchdown spot is located around 600 kms from the South Pole of the Moon. Vikram is the first lander on the lunar surface which had touched down on the South Pole area of the Moon. Unfortunately, the Lander lost contact with ISRO just 2 kms above the surface of the moon before landing.
Nasa said, “The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) passed over the landing site on September 17 and acquired a set of high-resolution images of the area; so far the LROC team has not been able to locate or image the lander. It was dusk when the landing area was imaged and thus large shadows covered much of the terrain; the Vikram lander may be hiding in a shadow. ”
Raising hope to picture Vikram, NASA said that lighting will be favourable when LRO passes over the site in October when it will once again try to image the Lander.
