Hello Vikram, You There? How NASA Antennas Are Trying To Connect With Chandrayaan-2 Lander

The NASA is reportedly attempting to send signals to Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram amid efforts by the ISRO to connect with Lander, which is lying motionless on the surface Moon. Since the hard landing of Vikram during early hours of September 7, the ISRO has said that it will try to establish contact with Vikram. It should be noted that the ISRO has time only till September 21st. Now, a Times of India report says that NASA has also joined the effort to reconnect with Vikram Lander. The report says that deep-space antennas at three geostrategic locations have send ‘hello signals’ to Vikram Lander.

The NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is helping ISRO in connecting with Vikram as per the prior contract between two space agencies. “DSN 24 beams 12KW of RF at the #Moon in hopes of stimulating #Chandrayaan2's lander #VikramLander into communicating with home. Here's a eerie recording of the searcher's signal reflected off the Moon and back to Earth via EME (Earth Moon Earth) on 2103.7MHz,” tweeted astronomer Scott Tilley conforming the news. “#DSN 24 at Goldstone starts early just after local Moonrise signally for #VikramLander,” Tilley tweeted on Thursday. The NASA has three deep space networks located in South California’s Goldstone, Spain’s Madrid, Australia’s Canberra. 

Vikram, with rover 'Pragyan' housed inside it, hit the lunar surface after communication with the ground-stations was lost during its final descent, just 2.1 km above the lunar surface, in the early hours of Saturday.

"We are making all-out efforts to see whether communication can be re-established with the lander," another ISRO official told PTI. "An ISRO team is the on the job at ISROTelemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC)."

The mission life of the lander and rover is one Lunar day, which is equal to 14 earth days. The chances of getting Vikram back are dim but not totally bleak. The good news for ISRO is that the lander is intact even after a hard landing.

"It had a hard-landing very close to the planned (touch-down) site as per the images sent by the on-board camera of the orbiter. The lander is there as a single piece, not broken into pieces. It's in a tilted position," an ISRO official associated with the mission claimed on Monday.

HIGHLIGHTS

• ISRO is trying to connect with Vikram on surface Moon.
• NASA has also joined the effort to reconnect with the Lander.
• NASA’s deep-space antennas have send signals to Lander.