NASA lunar probe to fly over Vikram on Sept 17

To shed more light on what happened to the Chandrayaan-II mission's Vikram lander, United States space agency NASA's lunar probe will be flying over the crash-landing site on September 17.

TheIndian Space Research Organization has been trying to establish contact withthe Vikram lander since September 7, after it crashed at a site just a fewhundred meters above the Moon.

TheNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) probe is expected tounveil added information about the condition of the lander, which may aid Indiain its efforts to connect with the ground station.

TheUS space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is supposed to send backimages that it captures of the lander.

TheNASA orbiter's project scientist Noah Petro said: "NASA will share any beforeand after flyover imagery of the area around the targeted Chandrayaan-2 Vikramlander landing site to support analysis by the Indian Space Research Organization."

Meanwhile,India's space agency will be continuing with its efforts to contact the Vikramlander.

Asper its contractual agreement with the ISRO, NASA had tried to contact theVikram lander perched on the lunar surface before as well. Hoping to elicit aresponse the Chandrayaan-II lander, the US space body's jet propulsionlaboratory had sent out radio frequencies too.

Boththe space agencies are continuously making efforts to connect with the landerand are trying to contact it.

ISRO had set a 14-day deadline to establish contact with Vikram and right now it feels like a race against time as the period is almost drawing to a close.

This duration will be the only time when the lunar South Pole will be exposed to sun rays that would enable the solar panel fitted lander to operate.