The apparent loss of India's first moon lander Vikram has cast a pall on the country's Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told the nation's space agency it must forge ahead.
In a heartfelt 25-minute speech at the Indian Space Research Organisation's Control Centre in Bengalaru late Friday (Sept. 6), Modi sought to boost the morale of the Chandrayaan-2 team after its first-ever moon landing attempt on Friday ended with a mysterious loss of signal from the Vikram lander. While ISRO has not formally announced that the lander crashed into the moon, Modi's comments hinted that Vikram and its small Pragyan rover may be lost.
"Sisters and brothers of India, resilience and tenacity are central to india's ethos. In our glorious history of thousands of years we have faced moments that may have slowed us, but they have never crushed our spirit," Modi said in his speech. "We have bounced back again, and gone on to do spectacular things."
Modi spoke at 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 Sept. 7 GMT), though it was 8 a.m.
he world is resting on the hope that Chandrayaan-2's lander Vikram did not crash as Isro scientists are still trying to establish its communication with the orbiter.
However, there is a possibility that India's first Moon lander Vikram crash-landed on to the lunar surface resulting in the sudden snapping of the communication link with the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.
Reliable sources in the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) agreed to the possibility of such an event. Now, with the help of the orbiter, an attempt is being made to take a photograph of Vikram.
Scientists are also trying to find out from the data of Vikram's flight data recorder why it lost its way at an altitude of 2.1 km. A flight data recorder is a device like the black box of an aircraft.
Sources in Isro said that Vikram deviated from its path at an altitude of 2.1 km from its designated landing spot on the Moon's South Pole. After that, the lander reached 335 meters at a speed of 60 metres per second. It was at this place that Vikram lost contact with the Isro station in Bengaluru.
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