Chandrayaan-2's Pragyan rover intact, engineer tells ISRO

(Image: Reuters)

A Chennai-based engineer has told the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that Chandrayaan-2's Pragyan rover is intact.

Shanmuga Subramanian, citing a picture taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), said the rover appeared to have rolled a few metres from the Vikram lander.

"We've heard nothing from Nasa so far on the matter. But yes, the person who had identified Vikram debris earlier has sent us an email about this. Our specialists are looking into the matter and we cannot say anything at this juncture," ISRO Chairman K Sivan told The Times of India.

Chandrayaan2's Pragyan "ROVER" intact on Moon's surface & has rolled out few metres from the skeleton Vikram lander whose payloads got disintegrated due to rough landing | More details in below tweets @isro#Chandrayaan2#VikramLander#PragyanRover (1/4) pic.twitter.com/iKSHntsK1f

— Shan (Shanmuga Subramanian) (@Ramanean) August 1, 2020

Update: It seems the commands were sent to lander blindly for days & there is a distinct possibility that lander could have received commands and relayed it to the rover.. but lander was not able to communicate it back to the earth @uncertainquark

— Shan (Shanmuga Subramanian) (@Ramanean) August 1, 2020

ISRO lost contact with the Vikram lander on September 7, 2019, after an attempt to make a soft landing on the moon. Subramanian, who calls himself a "space enthusiast", identified the debris of the Vikram lander.