Chandrayaan 2 Vikram lander spotted: NASA credits Chennai techie Shanmuga Subramanian

This arresting Nasa image, released on December 3, shows the precise spot on the Moon's surface where Vikram, the lander deployed in India's Chandrayaan-2 mission, hard-landed in early September

Chandrayaan 2, Vikram Lander, NASA, Chennai Techie Who Found Vikram,  Shanmuga Subramanian, National News, True Scoop News, English News- True Scoop

This arresting Nasa image, released on December 3, shows the precise spot on the Moon's surface where Vikram, the lander deployed in India's Chandrayaan-2 mission, hard-landed in early September.

Vikram went incommunicado shortly before its scheduled touchdown near the lunar south pole. A tense nation watched as the Isro control room's mood of cheerful anticipation evaporated. The prime minister was on hand to offer words of comfort.

"Despite the loss, getting that close to the surface was an amazing achievement," Nasa said in a statement describing the new images of the Vikram impact site.

These pictures are the result of weeks of work involving Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team and Shanmuga Subramanian, a Chennai-based techie who first located the debris in the US space agency's images.

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The photo you saw at the top of this page "highlights changes to the surface," Nasa says. Here's another image, marked with coloured dots, and showing debris (green) and disturbed soil (blue).

See the region marked "S"? That's debris found by Shanmuga Subramanian. India would have become the fourth nation to land on the Moon if Vikram had reached its destination safe and sound.

Jitendra Singh, the central minister for the Department of Space, said last month in Parliament that it wouldn't be fair to call the Chandrayaan-2 mission a failure.

He pointed out that most mission stages -- from launch to lunar orbit entry -- had been successful. No country had managed to pull off a successful soft landing in less than two attempts, not even the United States, he said.


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