It might look like a bunch of moon craters, but somewhere in this image lies a large piece of metal that carried India’s hopes of lunar science.
This image was captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of NASA on September 17, as it went over the target landing site of the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
That project's lander, dubbed Vikram, fell silent in the final minutes of its touchdown procedure on Sept. 6. The India Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which oversees the mission, spent two weeks trying to establish communications with the lander.
ISRO has said it was able to spot the lander with the orbiter component of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, but the agency has not released those photographs. NASA wanted to help the effort, but LRO's angle on the scene was suboptimal during its first flyover of the targeted landing site after the attempt.
Head over to Space.com to find where the missing moon lander is.
(Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)
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