The Vikram Lander is believed to be in a tilted position on the moon but is still in one piece, ISRO officials are reported to have said. ISRO lost contact with the Lander when it was only 2.1 kilometres above the ground.
“It had a hard-landing very close to the planned (touch-down) site as per the images sent by the on-board camera of the orbiter. The lander is there as a single piece, not broken into pieces. It’s in a tilted position,” an ISRO official associated with the mission reportedly stated. “We are making all-out efforts to see whether communication can be re-established with the lander,” the official said. “An ISRO team is the on the job at ISROTelemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) here.”
The officials also state that orbiter images of the Lander aren’t enough to ascertain whether the Land has suffered any internal damage although its highly likely that the high-velocity landing caused some internal damage.
Sources at @ISRO who share the above information also point out that orbiter visual of the Vikram Lander isn’t enough to establish internal structural integrity, only superficial. High velocity landing likely to have damaged systems. But effort still on to see if he’ll ‘wake up’.
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) September 9, 2019
ISRO is yet to make any official statement on the matter. There has been no official communication yet on the damage that may have been caused. ISRO was earlier able to locate the Lander through images sent by the Orbiter.
