While the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is trying to establish contact with the lander Vikram, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) probe will fly over the landing site on the Moon on Tuesday, September 17 to help gather new information since all communications halted moments before the scheduled landing on September 7.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is also expected to release images of the lander Vikram, as mentioned in reports by US media. Noah Petro, LRO’s project scientist told spaceflightnow that NASA will share images to help ISRO’s analysis. “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 period of 14 days which started on September 7 to establish contact with Vikram Lander comes closer. The period is the only time the region will be exposed to the Sun’s rays, enabling the lander to operate. Post this window, it will be too cold for lander Vikram to operate.