Vikram had a “hard landing”, NASA said as it released high-resolution images captured by its reconnaissance orbiter of the moon’s unchartered south pole where the Chandrayaan-2 lander attempted to soft-land during the ambitious mission three weeks ago.

The module had attempted a soft landing on a small patch of lunar highland smooth plains between Simpelius N and Manzinus C craters before losing communication with ISRO on September 7. The site was about 600 km from the south pole in a relatively ancient terrain, according to the US space agency.

“Vikram had a hard landing and the precise location of the spacecraft in the lunar highlands has yet to be determined,” NASA said on September 27.

The scene was captured from a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Quickmap fly-around of the targeted landing site image width is about 150 km across the centre.

The NASA orbiter passed over the Vikram landing site on September 17 and acquired a set of high-resolution images of the area. So far, the LROC team has not been able to locate or image the lander.

The LRO will next fly over the landing site on October 14 when lighting conditions will be more favourable, said John Keller, deputy project scientist, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission, Goddard Space Flight Centre.

“It was dusk when the landing area was imaged and thus large shadows covered much of the terrain. It is possible that the Vikram lander is hiding in a shadow. The lighting will be favourable when LRO passes over the site in October and once again attempts to locate and image the lander,” NASA said.

ISRO gears up for next mission

ISRO is working on a future moon mission, undeterred by Chandrayaan-2’s lander Vikram not achieving its stated aim of soft landing on the lunar surface though its orbiter is doing “very well”, said ISRO chairman K. Sivan.

Terming the Chandrayaan-2 mission as a “success” despite the lander failing to do a soft landing on the moon, Sivan said the mission is not the end of the story as many more important assignments are lined up. “Our plans on Aditya L1 solar mission and Gaganyaan mission are on track,” he said.

Necessary approvals have been obtained and procedures have to be complied with before making a formal announcement about a mission, he said.

Gaganyaan, scheduled to be launched in 2022, aims to send three astronauts to space and bring them back safely.

“The process of selection of astronauts for Gaganyaan mission is going on. We have selected certain people. We are planning to select 12 candidates from India. Then, they will go to Russia, which will select four out of 12. These four final candidates will undergo 15-month rigorous training in Russia. The selection from our side would end in another one month,” he said.