Just one week left for ISRO to establish communication with Vikram Lander. Otherwise...
Precisely, a time period of just 8 days is left for ISRO to establish communication with Vikram Lander that went silent on September 7 during its final descent on the Chandrayaan-2 moon mission. This one-week window of opportunity for ISRO, the Indian space agency, to restore link with Vikram Lander will close on September 21. Even though hopes are fading with every passing moment, ISRO is pulling all stops to strike a communication with Vikram Lander. American Space Agency NASA too has joined in to help ISRO have this breakthrough of communicating with Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander.
ISRO has just a week left to communicate with Vikram Lander. Here's why
Vikram Lander was designed to execute a soft-landing on the lunar surface. Both Vikram Lander and rover have a mission life of one Lunar day, which is equivalent to 14 earth days. This, obviously, means that ISRO has just a week to revive Vikram Lander. With each passing hour, the available power on the batter is draining out. Slowly and gradually there will not be anything left for it to power and operate.
Why are chances of establishing connection with Vikram Lander turning thin:
Firstly, Vikram Lander's hard-landing on the lunar surface has made the task of establishing communication a tough job as it may not have the right orientation to receive signals.
Secondly, impact shock may have caused damage to Vikram Lander. This is another cause of concern for ISRO.
What may happen if ISRO is not able to establish contact with Vikram Lander by Sept 21:
There will be minimal chances of springing the Chandrayaan-2 moon mission back to life if communication is not established by September 21. This will push India's ambitious Chandrayaan-2 mission into darkness forever. The Moon will see temperatures drop to mind-numbingly cold levels, around -238 degrees Celsius, after September 21. This has the potential to damage Vikram Lander's equipment. And, this is also the reason why Vikram Lander and rover's mission life was originally meant to be only 14 earth days - sunlit phase of the lunar day.
ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 mission: What happened on September 7
Vikram Lander, with Pragyan housed inside it, lost communication with ground station early on September 7 during its final descent, just some distance away from the lunar surface, minutes before the planned touch-down on the Moon. ISRO has been making extensive efforts since then. The next day, ISRO spotted Vikram lander on the lunar surface by camera on-board of the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.
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