New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is racing against time as it attempts to establish contact with lander Vikram before Saturday (September 21). After that the Moon region will enter into a lunar night, making it impossible for the lander to get any sunlight to generate power for its working.
“Progressively, you can imagine that it becomes that much more difficult, with each passing hour, the available power on the battery gets drained out, and there won’t be anything left for it to power and operate,” an ISRO official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Vikram lander, with rover Pragyan housed inside it, had lost communication with ground station on September 7 during its final descent, just 2.1 km above the lunar surface.
Since then, an ISRO team in Bengaluru has been desperately trying to restore the link with the lander, which has a mission life of one lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 earth days.