Chennai: Even as ISRO is trying its best to establish contact with Vikram Lander, Chandrayaan-1 Director Mylswamy Annadurai has said the obstacles on the lunar surface may have been stopping the lander from receiving signals.
“As we have located the lander on the lunar surface, we now have to establish contact with it. The place, where the lander alighted is expected to be not conducive enough for the lander to soft-land. There may be some obstacles, which could have been stopping us from establishing the connection,” he said.
“In the past, the Chandrayaan’s orbiter had beamed the signals towards the lander to establish signals, but in the present case, it has to be seen whether the latter receives it or not,” he told ANI.
“There is always a two-way communication between the orbiter and the lander, but we can attempt to communicate through one way,” he added.
A thermal image of what appeared to be the lander, which also houses rover Pragyan, was taken by the onboard camera of the orbiter. The camera is of the highest resolution in any lunar mission so far. The orbiter is going around the moon at an altitude of 100 km.
Scientists at ISRO had lost contact with the Chandrayaan 2 lander in the early hours of Saturday just minutes before it was supposed to make a ‘soft landing’ on the lunar surface.