© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
After three months since ISRO’s Vikram lander attempted to make a soft-landing on the moon, the debris of the spacecraft was finally located. A Chennai engineer’s dedicated efforts to spot the lander’s debris bore fruit as his theory was confirmed by NASA Tuesday. The US space agency released a picture showing the site of the lander’s impact and the “associated debris field”.
On Tuesday, NASA issued a statement confirming Subramanian’s findings and even gave him credit for the finding.
The Indian space enthusiast told ANI that he had spotted some differences in the photos released by The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera team and spent seven to eight hours for many days to confirm the exact location where the lander’s debris could be found. He then notified NASA.
On social media, Indians praised the Chennai resident’s efforts and his name started trending on Twitter. People praised Subramanian for his dedication, effort and perseverance, with many calling him a “hero” and said he was “inspiring”.
https://twitter.com/piyushkumar9570/status/1201733431178063872
https://twitter.com/Sun_to_myShine/status/1201744474025517061
In its statement, NASA said, “Shanmuga Subramanian contacted the LRO project with positive identification of debris. After receiving this tip, the LROC team confirmed the identification by comparing before and after images.”
ISRO had so far avoided any comment on the fate of the Vikram lander. It had maintained that communication with the lander was lost when it was 355 metres above the moon, and efforts were being made to restore contact.
Three days after the incident, ISRO had said the Orbiter module of Chandrayaan-2, which is functioning normally and circling the moon, had spotted Vikram and taken thermal images, but did not specify the condition of the lander.
