The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said they found the disabled spacecraft using their Chandrayaan 2 orbiter but failed to produce any images. As reported by Space Flight Now, the LRO located the Israeli lander Beresheet when it crashed earlier this year. NASA’s Noah Petro said: “Per NASA policy, all LRO data are publicly available.
“NASA will share any before and after flyover imagery of the area around the targeted Chandrayaan 2 Vikram lander landing site to support analysis by the Indian Space Research Organisation.”
An ISRO statement said: “Vikram lander has been located by the orbiter of Chandrayaan 2, but no communication with it yet.
“All possible efforts are being made to establish communication with (the) lander.”
ISRO has not made any statement on the condition of the lander.
NASA’s Lori Glaze said: “We believe that (Vikram) made a harder landing than they desired on Friday evening.”
The signal from the lander ended moments before it was due to touchdown.
Vikram was carrying a US laser reflector to allow NASA to make precise measurements of the distance between the Earth and its’ only satellite.
Beresheet carried the same.
Ms Glaze explained: “We did have a NASA Laser Retroreflector Array flying on that mission, so we’ll look out for that as we go forward, just as we continue to look for the Laser Retroreflector Array that was on Beresheet.
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“All the systems and sensors of the lander functioned excellently until this point and proved many new technologies, such as variable thrust propulsion technology used in the lander.”
NASA will send astronauts to the Moon in 2024.
The last mission in which astronauts set foot on the Moon was in December 1972.
It is believed the new mission will see a woman set foot on the Moon for the first time.
The mission is codenamed Artemis.
In Greek mythology, Artemis was the the goddess of the hunt, wilderness and the Moon amongst others.
Her twin brother, Apollo was the god of the Sun, music and medicine amongst others.
The previous Moon missions were codenamed after the Apollo.
Their Roman equivalents are Diana and Apollo.
