Chandrayaan 2: What may have gone wrong with India's Moon mission?

Pedro_P

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▼ India's space agency, Isro, has not yet released information on how it lost contact with its Moon lander seconds before it was due to touch down on the lunar surface. But former members of the agency tell the BBC what may have gone wrong.
Chandrayaan-2 (Moon vehicle 2) entered the Moon's orbit on 20 August and was due to land on the lunar surface a little after midnight India local time (1800 GMT) on 7 September - a month after it first shot into space.
But contact was lost moments before the lander (named Vikram, after Isro founder Vikram Sarabhai) was expected to touch down at the lunar south pole.
The orbiter has since spotted the lander on the surface of the Moon - unbroken, but tilted on its side. So far, scientists have not been able to establish contact with it.
The lander's final heart-stopping descent were monitored on screens, complete with readings which reflected the movement of the lander as it headed towards the surface of the Moon.
The screens carrying the readings also appeared on television and various social media accounts as the landing was broadcast live.
When the countdown began, the lander was moving at a velocity of 1,640 metres per second. Scientists say it appeared to be moving as planned during the first two phases of deceleration, known as the rough braking and fine braking operations.
It was during the final stage, known as the "hovering" stage, that the problem occurred.
The problem could well have been with the lander's central engine, according to Prof Roddam Narasimha, a former member of Isro. He said that his theory was based on the readings on the screen.
"One plausible explanation was that (▪ ▪ ▪)

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ssangra

Though am proud of the hard work of the scientists I think they were pushed into an early launch by a headline seeking megalomaniac in the parliament. No scientist worth his or her salt would have sent a lander prematurely without adding  the autobalancing and auto turning-it-upright mechanism as the chances that the lander would land on its backend were quite high. A well deserved kick for such idiot politicians who dont understand basic science and how one must do proper risk control so a huge cost and disappointment can be avoided for the brains who create. Hoping that these dumbo politicians learn to wait for the scientists saying all is ok than rushing to force them to launch just so they can win elections and tom tom the success of the brains as their own.
Its also utterly senseless and risky for such megalomaniacs to show these kind of things live on national TV. Such fools put their country's own best brains to huge risk. Every single enemy country who watched that broadcast knows now every single individual scientist in India who is capable of good work on the space pgm. The megalomaniac has not only risked the lives of these people but also their families in sheer stupidity. Other countries guard their scientists. No one knows who they are if perchance they stay among other normal civilians and where they work and they have seperate secure lines of communication.  Most of the time they stay in secure facilities not usually open to the outside world. But our idiot wants to tom tom from the rooftops as to who they are. He also opens the mkt for the head hunters who will be more than happy to snap the best talent while the megalomaniac only pays them a pittance and has the damoceles sword of sacking as per orders of high command in PSU also hangling on their dear heads.  Such is the fools we have today in the parliament. Besides the sorrow of each of these hardworking people is not supposed to be made a public display of so cheaply. The nation grieves with them but was this necessary is the question.

Next time a spherical lander with multiple legs or a swastika shaped one will be better ...it can not only work from any side ...it can be boosted to set itself upright with little effort.

chanakyakripa

We all learn from mistakes. Thats how science progresses. Isro will also find out what went wrong and next time it will be spot on. A spherical lander is a very good idea indeed. There's no meaning of doing chai-pe-charcha over this as the scientists out there in karo are the best of the lot & they know what they are doing.

asr335704

They were unable to land Vikram properly on the land of moon properly this time. It may be because of lack of inexperience while dealing with project of such magnitude that has been publicized so much and have added high pressure on ISRO to prove it as a success.

Hopefully they will be able to do it correctly in the future.

As suggested in above posts, next lander can be in spherical shape or kind of in spider shape with auto-moving legs that can manage itself whether it hits the moon land hard or gets tilted.