“Vikram lander descent was as planned and normal performance was observed till the altitude of 2.1 km. Subsequently the communication from the lander to ground station was lost. The data is being analysed,” said K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, the country’s equivalent of NASA.
“It is not a small thing that we have achieved. Be courageous.” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the announcement. Modi had been in the mission control room when the lander was supposed to touch down.
The next phase would have been a rover traveling on the lunar surface and collecting mineral and chemical samples for remote scientific analysis. The automated rover is named Pragyan (meaning “wisdom”).
This latest venture would have brought India into the elite group of four nations who have successfully accomplished a soft landing on the moon.
Unlike previous attempts by other countries, India was attempting to land its rover on the far side of the moon — an area that has been left largely unexplored during other missions.
The Chandrayaan-2, which means “moon vehicle” in Sanskrit, took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in southern Andhra Pradesh on July 22. Weighing 3.8 tons and carrying 13 payloads, it had three elements: lunar orbiter, lander and rover.
Before communication was lost, the lander was attempting to touch down in the high latitude areas near the south pole between two craters.
“This particular south pole is in a shadow region. Because of these special characteristics, it is believed that new sides will be hidden. It is a place that nobody has explored,” said K. Sivan, chairman of ISRO in an interview last week.
Source : Nbcnewyork
