Meet: Nasa’s Orbiter in search of Vikram lander

On Tuesday, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over the Chandrayaan-2 lander Vikram's landing site on the Moon. It took photos of spacecraft that has been silent since its attempt to land on the lunar surface a few days ago. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is operated by the United States space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA officials have said that the pictures would be shared with the Indian agencies and would be made public soon. Vikram lost contact with Earth in the early hours of September 7 when it attempted landing near the south pole of the Moon. Since then the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which located Vikram on the lunar surface on September 8, has been making all-out efforts to re-establish communication with the Chandrayaan-2 lander. NASA too, has activated its Earth-based space communications antennas in order to get in touch with Vikram. These efforts, so far, have been unsuccessful. What is NASA’s orbiter? The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a robotic spacecraft that has been revolving around the Moon for over a decade now. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is part of a NASA mission that is quite similar to India's Chandrayaan-1 mission. The NASA mission that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is part of was launched in June 2009, months after Isro launched the Chandrayaan-1 mission. Like the Chandrayaan-1 mission, the NASA project consisted of an orbiter and an impact probe that deliberately crashed into the lunar surface. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the NASA project's orbiter and is part of the space agency's efforts to get back to launching missions to Moon. The purpose The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter entered the Moon's orbit in June 2009 and for the next year, focussed on exploring the lunar surface. As part of its exploration mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mapped locations on the lunar surface that would be suitable for future robot and manned missions to the Moon. After completing its one-year exploration mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter embarked on a two-year science mission to carry out experiments and study the Moon. The mission has since been extended. According to NASA, the data collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter as part of its missions "will help the world develop a deeper understanding of the lunar environment, paving the way for safe human return to the Moon and for future human exploration of our solar system". The findings Apart from identifying suitable areas for future missions to the Moon, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has made a number of discoveries and findings over the last few years. Some of the most significant findings include: Finding areas on the Moon that are home to the coldest spots in the Solar System. These areas are located in the lunar polar regions and have temperatures of around minus 250 degrees Celsius. Discovering deposits of hydrogen in regions of the Moon that are cold enough for iced water to exist in the areas. Detecting the presence of carbon monoxide, molecular hydrogen and mercury in the gaseous clouds that were a result of the mission's impact probe crashing on to the lunar surface. Apart from these, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter also shot high-resolution photos of previous missions sent to the Moon. These include shooting images of the Apollo 11 mission in such detail that they capture the tracks made by Neil Amstrong, the first human being to walk on the Moon. Interestingly, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter previously was able to locate the crash site of another spacecraft that attempted a soft landing on the Moon. In May, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter manage to photograph an impact crater created by the crash landing of the Israeli Beresheet lander that made an unsuccessful attempt to land on the Moon. The North Pole of the Moon, photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (Photo: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)