Chandrayaan-2 : is the Mission is not over yet?
Jubilation turned to despair early Saturday morning as the Chandrayaan-2 lander lost contact with Earth minutes before it was to land on the Moon. All was going well for the Vikram lander, which was descending on to the lunar surface as planned. Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation were visibly excited and loudly cheered and clapped as Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander successfully aced various stages of its lunar descent.
The stage was set and the big bang announcement -- Chandrayaan-2 lands on the Moon! -- was around the corner when suddenly the Isro control room in Bengaluru went silent. For those watching the live visuals on television, there was no clue as to what was happening apart from the worried faces of the Isro scientists.
And then, then word came in that Isro had lost touch with the Vikram lander. Here's an account of what happened early Saturday morning.
1:40 am: The Chandrayaan-2 lander Vikram began its descent on to the lunar surface. The descent began on time and the first manoeuvre the Chandrayaan-2 performed was 'rough braking' to significantly reduce its speed.
1:50 am: The Chandrayaan-2 lander Vikram successfully completed its rough braking phase and entered into a fine braking mode. At this point, the Vikram lander was around 4 kilometres away from the lunar surface.
1:50 am - 2:00 am: Updates from the Isro centre in Bengaluru stopped coming in as visuals of worried scientists took over. It was clear that something had gone wrong, but not what. There was pin-drop silence in the Isro control room with scientists occasionally whispering amongst themselves.
2:00 am - 2:15 am: The Isro control centre remained visibly tensed. Shortly after 2 am, Isro chief K Sivan was seen going up to the viewing gallery where PM Narendra Modi was present. Sivan briefed the prime minister, who patted him on his back before proceeding to leave the viewing gallery.
2:15 am: It was becoming clear that Isro had lost touch with the Chandrayaan-2 lander.
2:18 am: Isro chief K Sivan confirmed that contact with Chandrayaan-2's Vikram lander had been lost. Sivan did not let on much except to say that Vikram had performed its descent as it was supposed to up until the moment it lost contact when it 2.1 kilometres above the lunar surface. Data from the descent was being analysed, Sivan said.
ALL NOT LOST
We do not know if the Chandrayaan-2 lander, which housed the six-wheeled rover Pragyaan, has crashed. The Indian Space Research Organisation has said they are currently not in a position to confirm that the lander has crashed.
However, a point to note is that the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which will do all the heavy lifting on the Chandrayaan-2 mission, is in orbit around the Moon. The orbiter is where the majority of the experiments that are to be performed by Chandrayaan-2 are located.
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