The crashed landing module of the Indian moon mission "Chandrayaan-2" has been discovered on the moon. "It must have been a hard landing," said Kailasavadivoo Sivan, head of the Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) on India's Indian Today.
Thus, the lander "Vikram" is not broken, but it is still unclear in what condition it is. "We try to make contact," says Sivan.
The lunar landing mission is considered a prestigious project. India would have been the fourth country to have managed a controlled landing on Earth's satellite - after the US, the Soviet Union and China. An Israeli probe crashed in the spring on the moon in the spring after a technical error.
For India, it is the second mission to the moon. The first lunar probe "Chandrayaan-1" was launched in 2008 and had orbited the moon without landing on it. In addition to the lander "Vikram", the current moon mission "Chandrayaan-2" includes an orbiter, which is to take pictures of the lunar surface and make contact with the lander, as well as a rover.
"We hope the best"
According to Isro, the orbiter should now have succeeded in recording the lander on the moon. Further details were the space authority initially not known. On social networks circulate numerous false recordings, which are supposed to show "Vikram". In fact, it can be seen on other moon missions such as "Apollo 16" or even the Martian surface.
India wants to try to contact the lander for at least two weeks. "We hope the best," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter. The contact to the lander is not the first mishap of the unmanned space mission. At the beginning of July, a first attempt to launch the "Chandrayaan-2" had to be stopped just one hour before the start. There had been a leak on the launcher. On July 22, the launch then worked.
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The special feature of the mission: The landing of "Vikram" was planned far away from the lunar equator, which is otherwise preferred. Instead, the probe should dock at 70 degrees South, comparatively close to the Moon's South Pole. According to initial findings, the lander should be hit at about its destination on the lunar surface.
"Chandrayaan" in Sanskrit means "moon vehicle". The aim of the approximately 126-million-euro mission was to map the surface of the South Pole region, to analyze the soil and to seek water. This could become interesting as a raw material in the future, because with its help fuel could be won for further rocket flights, which lead further into space.