{"id":12805,"date":"2019-12-03T01:21:32","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T17:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/amateur-sleuth-helps-locate-crash-site-of-indias-vikram-moon-lander\/"},"modified":"2019-12-03T01:21:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T17:21:32","slug":"amateur-sleuth-helps-locate-crash-site-of-indias-vikram-moon-lander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/amateur-sleuth-helps-locate-crash-site-of-indias-vikram-moon-lander\/","title":{"rendered":"Amateur sleuth helps locate crash site of India\u2019s Vikram moon lander"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This before and after image ratio highlights changes to the surface; the impact point is near center of the image and stands out due the dark rays and bright outer halo. Note the dark streak and debris about 100 meters to the south-southeast of the impact point. Diagonal straight lines are uncorrected background artifacts. Credits: NASA\/Goddard\/Arizona State University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An Indian software developer and mechanical engineer combing through high-resolution imagery captured by a NASA spacecraft has located debris scattered on the lunar surface in September by the crash of the Vikram lander, India\u2019s first probe to attempt a soft touchdown on the moon, NASA said Monday.<\/p>\n

A camera mounted on NASA\u2019s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has recorded images of the Vikram spacecraft\u2019s target landing site since Indian ground controllers lost contact with probe Sept. 6 during final descent to the moon.<\/p>\n

The robotic Vikram lander was descending toward a landing zone around 373 miles (600 kilometers) from the moon\u2019s south pole. With Vikram, India aimed to become the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the moon.<\/p>\n

But engineers at the Indian Space Research Organization\u2019s mission control center lost communication with Vikram moments before landing, when the probe was just 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometers) above the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

The festive mood in the control center in Bengaluru quickly turned somber. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who was at mission control to observe the landing, consoled ISRO chairman K. Sivan and other members Vikram team.<\/p>\n

Vikram was named for the father of India\u2019s space program. The lander departed Earth in July with India\u2019s Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft, a three-piece lunar explorer comprising an orbiter, lander and rover.<\/p>\n

The Vikram lander \u2014 with the Pragyan rover on-board \u2014 detached from the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter before starting its descent. The orbiter remains operational with its own set of scientific instruments, including sensors to map the lunar surface and search for evidence of water ice hidden in dark polar craters.<\/p>\n

After Vikram stopped communicating with ground teams, ISRO began looking for signs of the lander with the sharp-eyed camera on the country\u2019s new Chandrayaan 2 orbiter. Within days, the Indian space agency announced the orbiter had located the lander on the moon, and added that engineers continued to attempt to contact it.<\/p>\n

Chandrayaan 2\u2019s camera can resolve more detail on the lunar surface than the imager aboard NASA\u2019s LRO spacecraft, but ISRO has never released any images from the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter showing the Vikram crash site.<\/p>\n

Instead, LRO went to work searching for Vikram\u2019s wreckage and imaged the landing site Sept. 17. And thanks to NASA\u2019s open data policy, the U.S. space agency published imagery from each of LRO\u2019s passes over the Vikram landing site. The public responded by sifting through the pictures, comparing images taken before and after the Sept. 6 crash to identify any changes that might hint at Vikram\u2019s location.<\/p>\n

Shanmuga Subramanian, an Indian programmer who lives in Chennai, tipped off NASA when he noticed a new dot in an image from the LRO\u2019s mapping camera.<\/p>\n

In an email sent to Spaceflight Now, Subramanian wrote he searched NASA\u2019s images of the Vikram landing site in his spare time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something challenging as even NASA couldn\u2019t find out, so why (not) try it out,\u201d Subramanian wrote. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the thought that led me to search for Vikram \u2026 I don\u2019t think Vikram lander would have made such an impact on (the) minds of (the) Indian public if it had landed successfully. Since it was lost, there was (a) lot of discussion in public forms as well as on my Facebook regarding what malfunctioned, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the Vikram lander\u2019s crash got him hooked. He searched through NASA imagery every night for four or five days.<\/p>\n

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This image shows the Vikram lander impact point and associated debris field. Green dots indicate spacecraft debris (confirmed or likely). Blue dots locate disturbed soil, likely where small bits of the spacecraft churned up the regolith. \u201cS\u201d indicates debris identified by Shanmuga Subramanian. This portion of the Narrow Angle Camera mosaic was made from images acquired Nov. 11. Credits: NASA\/Goddard\/Arizona State University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Subramanian, who said he\u2019s been interested in space exploration since childhood, deduced the Vikram lander\u2019s flight path before landing from information gleaned from social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI searched around north of the landing spot as Vikram approached the landing spot only from (the) north,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAnd though there were lot of false positives, I found a tiny little dot and compared with previous LRO images (over the) last nine years, which eventually confirmed it would be the debris. Then I reached out (to) NASA.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA said it confirmed Subramanian\u2019s discovery by comparing before and after images of the Vikram landing area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the images for the first mosaic were acquired, the impact point was poorly illuminated and thus not easily identifiable,\u201d members of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, team wrote in a statement. \u201cTwo subsequent image sequences were acquired on Oct. 14 and 15, and Nov. 11. The LROC team scoured the surrounding area in these new mosaics and found the impact site (70.8810\u00b0S,  22.7840\u00b0E, 834 m elevation) and associated debris field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subramanian received an email from NASA Monday thanking and congratulating him for his role in determining Vikram\u2019s final resting place.<\/p>\n