Chandrayaan-2: NASA's lunar probe to fly over Vikram lander on Tuesday, new information expected

New Delhi: United States space agency NASA's lunar probe will fly over the landing site of Chandryaan-2's Vikram Lander on the Moon on Tuesday, September 17. New information regarding the condition of the lander is expected from this expedition.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will try to locate India’s Vikram lander on the moon during a flyover of the landing site Tuesday, Noah Petro, LRO’s project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center told spaceflightnow.com.

The lunar probe will also release the images taken of Vikram lander, to help the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) carry out their attempts to restore communication with the lander.

"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," said Petro.

The development comes even as the ISRO has been making all efforts to establish communication with Vikram Lander, after Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter located it on the Moon's surface. 

ISRO chief K Sivan had announced that the Orbiter had taken a thermal image of Vikram. The battery of Vikram Lander, which is carrying the Pragyan Rover,  has an expected life of 14 days, so the ISRO has another 7 days to establish communication with the craft.

Vikram Lander was just 2.1 kilometres above the lunar surface when it lost contact with ISRO, throwing a pall of gloom over the Indian space agency, but hopes were rekindled when Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter located the Vikram Lander on the Moon's surface on September 8.

On July 22, 2019, ISRO launched Chandrayaan-2 with the Orbiter, Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover. The Lander was scheduled to land on the Moon's South Pole, a mission never attempted.