Chandrayaan 2: To establish communication with Vikram, NASA helping ISRO
Bengaluru: Richard Stephenson, the US Space agency’s DNS operator had confirmed that the network is helping secure communication with the lander. Jet Propulsion Laboratory of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is sending radio signals to Vikram lander.
NASA is helping ISRO to establish the connection with Vikram, the moon lander of Chandrayaan-2, housed inside rover Pragyaan.
Vikram has a mission life of one lunar day and ISRO is trying all possible efforts to reconnect with the lander.
With the help of Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu at Bengaluru, ISRO is trying to affix the broken communication link.
Astronomer Scott Tilley, founder of American weather satellite IMAGE in 2018 considered to be lost said Deep Space Network (DSN) of NASA has been beaming the radio frequency to the lander.
Amateur astronomer added that his station will monitor for the signals continuously from the lander. According to him chances of his station to hear potential signals from Vikram are slim.
The best hope we have is that an #ISRO and/or #NSAS DSN stations will hear a faint whisper from #VikramLander in response to high power beacon signals before lunar night descends and freezes the lander.
— Scott Tilley (@coastal8049) September 13, 2019
The network is helping a secure connection link with the lander, the US space agency’s DSN operator Richard Stephenson has tweeted.
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
Before and after images of the moon lander’s hard landing location will be shared by the US Space Agency.
NASA’s spokesman told The New York Times “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.”
No images of Vikram’s landing location is shared by ISRO. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is also revolving around Moon which is scheduled to pass over the region on September 17.
Latest Update from Scott Tilley on Twitter
Well folks, its 2am here almost, no signals from #VikramLander. I'll leave the system running and recording. Meanwhile DSN24 continues to transmit to Vikram…. Thanks to all for sharing a night of satellite tracking with me. It's usually a solo gig 🙂 pic.twitter.com/T2GS8ymD6a
— Scott Tilley (@coastal8049) September 14, 2019
