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Screenshot of ISRO live broadcast of India’s 1st
moon landing attempt on 6 Sept. 2019 shows artists concept of Vikram moon
lander as part of Chandrayaan-2 mission
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Ken
Kremer -- SpaceUpClose.com &
RocketSTEM – 8 September 2019
TITUSVILLE, FL – Indian scientists have found the location of their ambitious Vikram lunar lander on the Moon’s surface this weekend via imaging from their
Chandrayaan-2 orbiting mothership - after it was feared lost when contact was
lost on Friday, Sept. 6 in the final
moments of descent for India’s first attempt to soft land a robotic probe on
the Moon’s rugged surface in
a region near the lunar south pole.
The science team from ISRO, the Indian Space
Research Organization, is now attempting to make contact with the 1470 kg Vikram
spacecraft - according to Indian press reports - before time runs out at the end of lunar day period
in 14 days. The spacecraft was not designed to withstand the utterly harsh frigid
cold of the following 14 day lunar night.
But no signals have been received yet and no
contact has been established with Vikram as of this writing.
"We
have found the location of Lander Vikram on lunar surface and Orbiter has
clicked a thermal image of Lander," ISRO Chairman K. Sivan told the ANI news service.
“We are trying to establish contact with the
Vikram lander.”
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Screenshot of ISRO live broadcast of India’s 1st
moon landing attempt on 6 Sept. 2019 with ISRO Chairman
statement
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And with each passing day the odds of making
contact diminish significantly.
The probe may not be fully intact if it suffered
a hard landing - as the team think may have happened - with damaged systems and
may not be able to power up from power generated by the solar panels and stored
in batteries if they are not oriented properly or malfunctioning.
The Chandrayaaan-2 orbiter snapped a thermal image
of the lander – which ISRO has not yet released.
A visible light camera is also on board which
will greatly assist the team in assessing the health of the lander.
“The
Orbiter camera is the highest resolution camera (0.3m) in any lunar mission so
far and shall provide high resolution images which will be immensely useful to
the global scientific community,” says ISRO in an update Saturday, Sept. 7.
Vikram is part of India’s Chandrayaaan-2 lunar orbiter mission upon which it flew
piggyback to the moon and was dispatched to the lunar surface after separation from
the orbiter – which continues to function well.
A mini rover named Pragyan with a mass of 27 kg
(59-pounds) was also loaded on board the lander and would have descended to the
surface a few hours after touchdown – had all gone well.
The targeted landing site near the lunar
south pole is an area close to potential deposits of water ice and therefore of
high interest to scientists around the globe.
The robotic landing had been scheduled for
approximately 4:23 p.m. EDT at a landing site located at 70.9 degrees south latitude on the near side of the moon - much
farther south and closer to the lunar south pole than ever attempted before.
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Screenshot of ISRO live broadcast of India’s 1st
moon landing attempt on 6 Sept. 2019 shows artists concept of Vikram moon
lander as part of Chandrayaan-2 mission
|
Contact with the 4 legged spacecraft was lost
at an altitude of only 2.1 kilometers after the four ‘rough braking phase’ thrusters
had successfully fired at 4:07 p.m. ET to slow the descent from an initial velocity
of 3600 mph following separation from the mothership Chandrayaaan-2 orbiter in
lunar orbit shortly before 4 p.m. EDT to start a 15 minute powered descent that
should have ended at nearly 0 mph for a successful touchdown.
Watch my live interview on BBC TV World News
in its entirety - which aired at 9:06 p.m. EDT Sept. 6 with later rebroadcasts, just 5 hours after the ambitious landing attempt by
the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation)
ended with no signal from the 1470 kg Vikram spacecraft as part of the Chandrayaaan-2
mission.
Had the landing attempt succeeded India would
have become only the fourth nation to land on Earth’s nearest neighbor – following
the former Soviet Union, United States and China.
About an hour later the ISRO Chairman K. Sivan appeared and read this statement live:
“The Vikram lander descent was as planned, and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles). Subsequently, the communications from the lander to the ground station was lost. The data is being analyzed.”
About an hour later the ISRO Chairman K. Sivan appeared and read this statement live:
“The Vikram lander descent was as planned, and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles). Subsequently, the communications from the lander to the ground station was lost. The data is being analyzed.”
Soft landing on the moon is not an easy task.
In fact it’s an enormous engineering challenge and over half of all moon
landing attempts have failed during the space age.
A moon landing attempt by a private Israeli company failed earlier this year in April 2019 when the Beresheet probe crash landed. Read our series of articles, enjoy our launch photos and watch my interviews with the I24 Israeli TV news channel.
China did successfully land a lunar probe for the second time earlier this year – on the lunar far side for the first time.
The mission cost approximately $140 million and continues with the Chandrayaaan-2 orbiter outfitted with eight state of the art instruments including high resolution cameras, spectrometers and radar to map the moon minerology and search for water ice in greater detail.
Chandrayaaan-2 is a follow up to Chandrayaaan-1 which was launched a decade ago in 2008 and detected the first evidence of water ice inside the moon permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles.
ISRO says the Chandrayaaan-2 lunar orbital mission could last as long as 7 years - far beyond the original design goal of 1 year – at an altitude of around 62 miles (100 kilometers).
Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22, 2019 from India’s spaceport and achieved lunar orbit on Aug. 20.
NASA aims to send the 1st woman and next man to land on the moon’s south pole on the Artemis 3 mission in 2024 – specifically to investigate the water ice in these permanently shadowed craters.
Watch for Ken’s
continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin,
Northrop Grumman and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy
Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight
Facility, Virginia.
Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com
Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about space topics.
A moon landing attempt by a private Israeli company failed earlier this year in April 2019 when the Beresheet probe crash landed. Read our series of articles, enjoy our launch photos and watch my interviews with the I24 Israeli TV news channel.
China did successfully land a lunar probe for the second time earlier this year – on the lunar far side for the first time.
The mission cost approximately $140 million and continues with the Chandrayaaan-2 orbiter outfitted with eight state of the art instruments including high resolution cameras, spectrometers and radar to map the moon minerology and search for water ice in greater detail.
Chandrayaaan-2 is a follow up to Chandrayaaan-1 which was launched a decade ago in 2008 and detected the first evidence of water ice inside the moon permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles.
ISRO says the Chandrayaaan-2 lunar orbital mission could last as long as 7 years - far beyond the original design goal of 1 year – at an altitude of around 62 miles (100 kilometers).
Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22, 2019 from India’s spaceport and achieved lunar orbit on Aug. 20.
NASA aims to send the 1st woman and next man to land on the moon’s south pole on the Artemis 3 mission in 2024 – specifically to investigate the water ice in these permanently shadowed craters.
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Dr Ken Kremer, scientist/journalist with Space UpClose, live
interview on BBC World TV news discusses India 1st moon landing attempt
on 6 September 2019 which apparently failed in the final moments of descent to touchdown
near the lunar south pole region when contact was lost
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Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com
Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area, active in outreach and interviewed regularly on TV and radio about space topics.
………….
Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events
Ken’s upcoming outreach events:
Sep 21, 1 PM: American Space Museum, Titusville, Florida.
“Exploring Mars and the Search for life – 3D” – Learn all about NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover illustrated with Ken’s custom created Mars rover panoramas from Curiosity, Spirit and Opportunity and up close clean room and launch pad views. Free and open to public.
Ken’s Space/Rocket/Mars imagery for sale to support his outreach.
Website: http://spacewalkoffame.org/
Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events
Ken’s upcoming outreach events:
Sep 21, 1 PM: American Space Museum, Titusville, Florida.
“Exploring Mars and the Search for life – 3D” – Learn all about NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover illustrated with Ken’s custom created Mars rover panoramas from Curiosity, Spirit and Opportunity and up close clean room and launch pad views. Free and open to public.
Ken’s Space/Rocket/Mars imagery for sale to support his outreach.
Website: http://spacewalkoffame.org/
Oct 15: Columbia, SC. Details upcoming
“Exploring Mars and
the Search for life – 3D” – Learn all about NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover illustrated
with Ken’s custom created Mars rover panoramas from Curiosity, Spirit and
Opportunity and up close clean room and launch pad views.
Ken’s
Space/Rocket/Mars imagery for sale to support his outreach
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