Meet Shanmuga Subramanian: The Chennai techie who helped find Vikram debris

Shanmuga Subramanian, who made the discovery said, 'It was something challenging as even NASA can't find out so why can't we try out?'

A space enthusiast from Chennai who worked independently, found a debris from the Vikram moonlander that scientists had been looking for and helped guide them to the spot where it had crashed.

Shanmuga Subramanian, who made the discovery, told IANS on Tuesday: "It was something challenging as even NASA can't find out so why can't we try out? And that's the thought that led me to search for Vikram lander."

He looked for it on the images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbital (LRO) Camera that the US space agency had released to the public.

LRO Project Scientist Noah Petro told IANS: "The story of this really amazing individual (who) found it, helped us find it, is really awesome."

He said that Subramanian "is totally independent of the LRO, totally independent of the Chandraayan 2 team, just someone who is very interested in the Chandraayan 2 mission (who) used our data and identified a spot where there was a change that we had not identified".

"He went through the image, looking pixel by pixel and found that spot," Petro added.

Subramanian works in Chennai as a software architect and told IANS in an email interview that he did the search in his spare time.

The first mosaic image of the likely crash site made from pictures taken by the LROC on September 17 was downloaded by several people to look for signs of the Vikram, NASA said.

NASA and the LRO project scientists said at that time they could not locate Vikram because the are it had crashed in was in deep shadows.

But not Subramanian.

Petro said that he and the LRO camera team head received an email from Subramanian about his finding and that was used to help identify the spot where Vikram crashed.

Business Standard

Vikram had hard landing; NASA releases images of Chandrayaan 2 landing site

Vikram was scheduled to touch down on September. 7. This event was India's first attempt at a soft landing on the Moon.

NASA on Friday released high-resolution images captured by its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) during its flyby of the lunar region where India's ambitious Chandrayaan 2 mission attempted a soft landing near the Moon's uncharted south pole, and found Vikram had a hard landing.

The Vikram lander module 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.

"Vikram had a hard landing and the precise location of the spacecraft in the lunar highlands has yet to be determined, NASA said.

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

Vikram was scheduled to touch down on September. 7. This event was India's first attempt at a soft landing on the Moon. The site was located about 600 kilometres from the south pole in a relatively ancient terrain, according to the US space agency.

The LRO passed over the 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.

LRO will next fly over the landing site on October 14 when lighting conditions will be more favourable, John Keller, Deputy Project Scientist Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission, Goddard Space Flight Centre, told PTI via email.

"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.

Business Standard

Chandrayaan 2's journey from ideation to the cusp of landing: A timeline

The India's second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 has gone through a long journey dotted with many events in close to 12 years since being conceived in 2007.

Business Standard : Chandrayaan-2 is about to begin its final descent to pull off a historic soft landing on the lunar surface.

The India's second moon mission has gone through a long journey dotted with many events in close to 12 years since being conceived in 2007.

Starting from Chandrayaan 1, here's a list of all the major events that led Chandrayaan-2 to where it is today:

April 2003

Over 100 eminent Indian scientists in the fields of planetary and space sciences, Earth sciences, physics, chemistry, astronomy, astrophysics and engineering and communication sciences discuss and approve the Task Force recommendation to launch a probe to the moon.

August 15, 2003

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announces the Chandrayaan mission during his Independence Day speech.

November 2003

The government gives its approval for the moon mission.

October 22, 2008

Chandrayaan-1 launched successfully from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota using four-stage PSLV rocket.

November 26, 2008

The indigenous Terrain Mapping Camera, which was first activated on October 29, 2008, acquires images of peaks and craters. This comes as a surprise to Isro officials because the Moon consists mostly of craters.

March 25, 2009

Chandrayaan-1 beams back its first images of the earth in its entirety.