National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is sending radio signals to Vikram lander, reports news agency IANS. The move will help Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) establish communication with Chandrayaan 2’s moon lander Vikram and rover Pragyan housed inside it.
ISRO is making all possible efforts to re-establish contact with Vikram, which has a mission life of one lunar day. One lunar day equals to 14 earth days.
Also read | ISRO continues attempts to establish contact with Vikram lander: Here’s how
According to the report, ISRO is trying to establish the link with the lander with its Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu near Bengaluru.
Astronomer Scott Tilley, who found American weather satellite IMAGE in 2018 that was considered to be lost, said NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) has been beaming the radio frequency to the lander.
As #NASA #DSN operator @nascom1 mentioned yesterday on Twitter, the effort being made to communicate is standard procedure after an anomalous mission event like this. While there is always hope and that drives the search the prognosis of hearing from #VikramLander is not good.Related stories
— Scott Tilley (@coastal8049) September 13, 2019
His station will continue to monitor for signals from the lander as long as the DSN continues to search for it, said the amateur astronomer. However, he added that chances of his amateur station hearing a potential signal from Vikram are slim.
The US space agency’s DSN operator Richard Stephenson also confirmed on Twitter that the network is helping secure a communication link with the lander.
To demonstrate just how important the @NASA Deep Space Network is to other agencies requiring a communications link to their spacecraft outside of Earth's atmosphere . We are currently supporting 2 x @isro and 2 x @esa missions. pic.twitter.com/Fr9RcAxIEx— Richard Stephenson (@nascom1) September 11, 2019
Earlier, the US space agency had reportedly said it will share before and after images of the location where the moon lander made a hard-landing.
"NASA will share any before and after flyover imagery of the area around the targeted Chandrayaan-2 Vikram landing site to support analysis by ISRO," NASA's spokesman told The New York Times.
ISRO has so far not released any images of Vikram's landing site. Besides Chandrayaan 2's own orbiter, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is also revolving around Moon. NASA’s orbiter is scheduled to pass over the region on September 17.
