Chandrayaan 2: Why Vikram Lander stopped receiving signals

Bengaluru, Sep 09: It was the faulty execution of the last stage of the operation due to which the Vikram Lander lost communication. Some scientists, who continue to analyse the data also do not rule out the possibility of an anomaly with regard to the velocity, while landing.

ISRO chairman, D Sivan said that they had found the location of the Vikram Lander on the lunar surface and the orbiter had clicked a thermal image of the lander. However they are still trying to establish contact, the ISRO chief also said.

Sivan said that the last phase was not executed in the right manner and it was in that phase that they lost link with the lander and could not establish contact.

At 1.45 a.m. on September 7, 12 minutes into its descent onto the lunar surface, the lander lost contact with earth. It is believed to have deviated from its path, fallen silent, and probably crashed on moon.

However Chandrayaan-1 director Mylswamy Annadurai said that it may have been the obstacles on the lunar surface that could have stopped the lander from receiving signals.

He told ANI, 'as we have located the lander on the lunar surface, we now have to establish contact with it. The place where the lander alighted is expected to not be conducive enough for the lander to soft-land. There may be some obstacles, which could have been stopping us from establishing the connection, he further added.

In the past Chandrayaan's orbiter had beamed the signals towards the lander to establish signals, but in the present case, it has to be seen whether the latter receives it or not, the director quoted by the news agency also said.

He said that the communication will not be for more than 5-10 minutes. There is always a two way communication between the orbiter and the lander, but we can attempt to communicate through one way, he added.