Chandrayaan-2: Less than a week to save Vikram

Vikram's date with destiny is just round the corner. In less than a week, darkness will descend on the South Polar region of the Moon, the location where the Chandrayaan-2 Lander was spotted by the Orbiter. Vikram had gone silent after a hard-landing on September 7.

The question on everyone's lips is this: Is there a remote possibility that a communication link can be re-established over the next six days? Despite several attempts by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), the Lander has not responded to any of the signals sent by the Orbiter.

Virtually giving up hope, the Isro topbrass has reportedly told the scientists concerned to instead focus on the Orbiter. Its life extended to 7.5 years, the Orbiter is now in ship shape to scan the lunar surface with multiple imaging payloads.

For Vikram, however, the short period till September 20-21 is critical since its solar panels can work only as long as the sun is over the landing site. The panels can be switched on only if the Orbiter can establish contact.

But due to the hard-landing, Vikram stands with a tilt and its antennas are not facing upwards as planned. Although the Orbiter had spotted the Lander and declared it was 'intact,' the extent of damage could not be established from its orbital height of 100km above the lunar surface.

On Tuesday, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Orbiter is expected to take an image of Vikram or its landing site as it passes over the lunar spot. This might give a better picture of Vikram's damage and orientation.

The NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of NASA could snap a picture with a higher resolution, share before and after flyover imagery of the area around the landing site.

Isro sources said even if, hypothetically, Vikram were to come alive, it would be too late to make a big difference to the mission. If the soft-landing had been achieved as planned on September 7, the Rover Pragyan would have rolled out of Vikram and probed the lunar surface for one lunar day, equivalent to 14 Earth days.