Space enthusiast and techie from Chennai, claims that the rover onboard Chandrayaan 2, the Indian Space Research Organisation¡¯s (ISRO) moon mission, is present on the lunar surface and has even moved a few metres.??
Shanmuga Subramanian, who found the debris of India's moonlander Vikram, posted a series of tweets along with the pictures of the moon surface saying, "Chandrayaan-2's Pragyan 'ROVER' intact on Moon's surface & has rolled out few metres from the skeleton Vikram lander whose payloads got disintegrated due to rough landing."?
The Chandrayaan 2 was India¡¯s second mission to the moon which was launched last year. It had a lander Vikram and a rover named Pragyan.
Vikram lost contact with ISRO following its launch from Chandrayaan-2 moon orbiter on September 6 last year, when it tried to make a soft landing near the moon's south pole.? ?
Subramanian had earlier identified Vikram¡¯s debris using NASA's images.?He has used the US space agency¡¯s images this time too to back his claim.¡°1.Debris I found was of Langumir probe from the Vikram lander. 2. Debris NASA found might be from other payloads, antenna, retro braking engines, solar panels on side etc. 3. Rover has rolled out from lander & has actually travelled few metres from the surface,¡± he said in one of his tweets.
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According to him, the rover may be still intact on the moon's surface. Latest pictures from LRO (Jan 4, 2020) showed rover tracks on the moon from the lander.?
Subramanian said that it was difficult to detect the rover because it is present on the South Pole of the moon, which is ¡°not always well lit.¡±
That's one of the reasons why it was not detected in NASA flyby on November 11,?Subramanian claims.?
He tweeted: ¡°Update: It seems the commands were sent to lander blindly for days & there is a distinct possibility that lander could have received commands and relayed it to the rover.. but lander was not able to communicate it back to the earth.¡±
Chairman of ISRO, K Sivan said that they have received communication from Subramanian and experts are analysing the same.?
Speaking to?TOI??Sivan said, 'We¡¯ve heard nothing from NASA so far on the matter. But yes, the person who had identified Vikram debris earlier has sent us an email about this. Our specialists are looking into the matter and we cannot say anything at this juncture.¡±
ISRO, which lost communication with Vikram in the early hours of September 7, 2019, has not been able to re-establish contact since.
July 21, 2020 marked a year of the launch of India's second moon mission by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)-MkIII-M1.?
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