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NASA photos show the crash site of India's Vikram lunar lander [engadget.com]

In September India lost contact with its Vikram lander just a mile above the Moon's surface [engadget.com], and now NASA has confirmed [nasa.gov] photos taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show where it impacted. The actual discovery, however, has been credited to an amateur, Shanmuga Subramanian. As the New York Times [nytimes.com] reported, he is an Indian programmer and mechanical engineer who noted subtle differences in before/after mosaic photos [twitter.com] back in October.

The debris kicked up by the impact was small enough that it's barely recognizable in the orbiter's resolution. According to NASA, the debris Shanmuga found is about 750m from the main crash site. Last week the ISRO said Vikram crashed within 500m of its intended landing point [engadget.com], but didn't release any pictures. The crash was apparently due to a problem with its braking thrusters, although the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft that released it is still operational and orbiting the moon, collecting data.

@NASA [twitter.com] has credited me for finding Vikram Lander on Moon's surface#VikramLander [twitter.com]#Chandrayaan2 [twitter.com]@timesofindia [twitter.com]@TimesNow [twitter.com]@NDTV [twitter.com]pic.twitter.com/2LLWq5UFq9 [t.co]

— Shan (@Ramanean) December 2, 2019 [twitter.com]

The #Chandrayaan2 [twitter.com] Vikram lander has been found by our @NASAMoon [twitter.com] mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. See the first mosaic of the impact site https://t.co/GA3JspCNuh [t.co]pic.twitter.com/jaW5a63sAf [t.co]

— NASA (@NASA) December 2, 2019 [twitter.com]

Source: New York Times [nytimes.com], NASA [nasa.gov]In this article: chandrayaan-2 [engadget.com], gear [engadget.com], India [engadget.com], ISRO [engadget.com], Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter [engadget.com], moon [engadget.com], NASA [engadget.com], space [engadget.com], Vikram [engadget.com]All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.Comments

Also at The Washington Times [washingtontimes.com], ABC News [go.com]

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