More than two months ago, the Indian Space Research Organization lost all means of communications with the Vikram lunar lander. After spending several weeks on an attempt to re-establish a connection, the space agency has decided to accept the fact that the mission didn’t go as expected, and the lander crashed into the surface of the moon.
The event was quite surprising since the first part of the descent went without problems. The lander descended from an altitude of 30 to 7.4 kilometers above the surface of the moon without issues. However, after a short time, abnormal readings were displayed, and while the spacecraft managed to land close within 500 meters of the initial target site, but the impact was quite harsh.
The exact cause of the crash has remained a mystery, although some theories floated around the internet. A brief report released last week mentions that the breaking thrusters malfunctioned, and there was no way to slow down the descent as the spacecraft approached the surface.
ISRO Acknowledges That Its Moon Lander Crashed
This is the first formal acknowledgment released by the Indian government, which continues to push the ISRO to develop new projects that could make the country more competitive in the space industry. A government official stated that most of the stages of the initiative, including the launch, orbital maneuvers, insertion, and initial descent phase, were completed successfully.
It is essential to point out that other initiatives have been quite successful as the orbiter that brought Vikram to the moon remains operational. It employs eight tools to collect a selection of new data that is beamed towards Earth. Earlier this year, a private Israeli company planned to send a robotic lander to the moon.
Everything went according to plan for a long time, but the probe faced a critical engine failure during the end of the landing sequence and crashed into the surface. Several agencies and private companies are working on projects that target the moon.
Doris’s passion for writing started to take shape in college where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. Even though she ended up working in IT for more than 7 years, she’s now back to what he always enjoyed doing. With a true passion for technology, Doris mostly covers tech-related topics.