Chennai techie claims Chandrayaan 2 rover intact on Moon

Shanmuga Subramanian, a Chennai-based engineer, claims to have spotted the Pragyan rover of Chandrayaan 2. It is intact on Moon’s surface and has rolled out a few metres from the skeleton Vikram lander whose payloads got disintegrated due to rough landing, he said.

If Vikram lander had crashed and completely broken into pieces, we would’ve got lot more debris than the current one, he said, adding that the liquid engine from the Vikram Lander is still intact on the surface and it got disintegrated from Lander.

The 33-year-old, who was credited for spotting the debris of the Chandrayaan 2 lander last year by NASA, further said there’s a possibility the lander would’ve received commands and relayed it to the rover. But, it was not able to communicate it back to the Earth.

“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 a series of tweets.

Interactive: Mars 2020: All you need to know about NASA’s mission to Red Planet

The space enthusiast said that the South Pole region of the Moon is not always well lit and the lander was in a shallow depth of 2 ms from the surface. Therefore, it was not visible in November 11’s NASA flyby due to different angle of incidence, he said, adding that it would be difficult for anyone to find it unless the sun is directly above the surface.

“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,” he further said.

Related news: Citizen science: Lessons from the Vikram episode