Chandrayaan 2: Orbiter will circle moon for a year, clickpictures

Bengaluru, Sep 07: While the fate of Chandrayaan 2 is still unknown after the Vikram Lander lost contact, officials have said that 95 per cent of Chandrayaan 2 is still safe.
Reports while quoting ISRO officials said that 95 per cent of the Chandrayaan 2 is still safe. The orbiter will keep circling the moon and also click pictures for 1 year.

The mission life is one year and the Orbiter can take images of the moon and send it to ISRO. Chandrayaan 2 comprises three segments-the Orbiter, Vikram and Pragyan. Vikram separated from the Orbiter on September 2.

A normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 kilometres, ISRO said after the Vikram Lander lost communication with the ground station.

13 minutes after the Vikram began its descent that communication with the Chandrayaan 2 lander was lost. The lander failed to make a smooth soft landing and was unable to bring down its speed to the required level.

The failure took place 13 minutes after the descent began hoping to reduce its speed from 6,048 km per hour to 7 km per hour. The reduction to 7 kilometres or lower was required for a soft landing.

ISRO said a while ago in a tweet, " this is a mission control centre. Vikram Lander descent was as planned and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 kilometres. Subsequently, communication from lander to the ground stations was lost. Data is being analysed."

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi who was present at the ISRO centre was briefed by Sivan. Prior to this consultations were held.

The moon lander, Vikram was separated from its orbiting mothership. It performed a series of manoeuvres to lower its altitude for a touchdown between 1.30 am and 2.30 am.
ISRO had termed this operation as tricky and even called it 15 minutes of terror. All around 2.1 kilometres from the surface, contact was lost. The data was being analysed, scientists at ISRO said.

In a tweet, Modi said, "India is proud of our scientists! They've given their best and have always made India proud. These are moments to be courageous, and courageous we will be! Chairman @isro gave updates on Chandrayaan-2. We remain hopeful and will continue working hard on our space programme.