The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA has shared a photograph of Chandrayaan-3 mission’s Vikram lander’s landing site. The location is about 600 kilometres away from the Moon’s South Pole.
The agency said that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft imaged the Chandrayaan-3 landing site on the Moon’s surface. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) lander touched down on the Moon on August 23.
The photo of the surface of Earth’s Moon shows small craters like bubbles and the Chandrayaan-3 Moon lander is visible in the centre as a tiny dark spot surrounded by white halo surrounding the vehicle. The image is 1,738 metres wide
The LROC (short for LRO Camera) acquired an oblique view (42-degree slew angle) of the lander four days later. The bright halo around the vehicle resulted from the rocket plume interacting with the fine-grained regolith (soil).
NASA LRO clicks Russia’s Luna-25 mission
NASA had also released images of Russia’s failed Luna-25 mission, which left a 10-metre wide crater on the Moon. NASA concluded that it was likely the impact site of Russia’s Luna 25 mission.
After the crash, Moscow said a special inter-departmental commission had been formed to investigate the reasons behind the loss of the Luna-25 spacecraft.
“Since this new crater is close to the Luna-25 estimated impact point, the LRO team concludes it is likely to be from that mission, rather than a natural impactor,” NASA said.
“The new crater is about 10 metres in diameter and is located at 57.865 degrees south latitude and 61.360 degrees east longitude at an elevation of about minus 360 metres.” it added.
Launched in June 2009, LRO is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and has seven instruments to collect data.
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