NASA Finds Debris Of Chandrayaan-2's Vikram Moon Lander, Tweets Images Of Crash Site

NASA’s confirmation came following a tip from an Indian space enthusiast who examined pictures of the area of the moon taken by a US orbiting camera.

NASA has spotted the crash site and debris of India's Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander on moon. (Image: NASA Twitter)

New Delhi: NASA has spotted the crash site and debris of India's Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander on moon, three months after the Vikram lander of Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan 2 mission made a hard landing on the moon’s surface. The United States’ space agency on Tuesday shared the pictures on Twitter of the area of the moon where they found the lander’s debris. The images were taken by a US orbiting camera in the space.

The #Chandrayaan2 Vikram lander has been found by our @NASAMoon mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. See the first mosaic of the impact site https://t.co/GA3JspCNuh pic.twitter.com/jaW5a63sAf

— NASA (@NASA) December 2, 2019

NASA’s confirmation came following a tip from an Indian space enthusiast who examined pictures of the area of the moon taken by a US orbiting camera. An Indian computer programmer and mechanical engineer named Shanmuga Subramanian contacted NASA’s project after which, the American space agency confirmed the identification by comparing before and after images. In a statement, NASA said the "debris first located by Shanmuga Subramanian about 750 meters northwest of the main crash site and was a single bright pixel identification in that first mosaic." The first mosaic image of the likely crash site made from pictures taken by the LROC on September 17 was downloaded by several people to look for signs of the Vikram, NASA said. One of them, Subramanian, contacted the LROC project with positive identification of debris, it said. “Shanmuga Subramanian contacted the LRO project with positive identification of debris. After receiving this tip, the LROC team confirmed the identification by comparing before and after images,” NASA stated. WATCH | NASA finds Vikram Lander's debris on moon surface, releases images When the images for the first mosaic were acquired on September 17, the impact point was poorly illuminated and could not easily be identified, it said. But two image sequences were acquired on October 14 and 15, and on November 11 were better. The November mosaic shows best the impact crater, ray and extensive debris field. The three largest pieces of debris are each about 2x2 pixels and cast a one pixel shadow. The three largest pieces of debris are each about 2x2 pixels and casts a one pixel shadow. The university said that based on Subramanian's tip, the LROC team scoured the surrounding area in the new mosaics and found the impact site and the debris field. The impact site is located at 70.8810 degree S, 22.7840 degrees E, at an elevation of 834 metres, it said. "The debris first located by Shanmuga is about 750 metres northwest of the main crash site," ASU said. Vikram lost contact with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) following its launch from Chandraayan-2 moon orbiter on September 6 when it tried to make a softlanding near the moon's south pole. In a statement NASA said: "Despite the loss, getting that close to the surface was an amazing achievement."