Thread by @coastal8049

Many new followers from India have asked many great questions about the #Chandrayaan2 orbiter and the fate of the #VikramLander. The following thread will provide some plain English answers about what I know about the present status of the mission.

#ISRO has not released any further official updates on the mission since Sept. 10th. Which indicated the orbiter had located the lander on the surface of the #Moon. Many rumours but there is no new official reports about #VikramLander or #Chandrayaan2 orbiter since this report.

No radio signals have been copied from #VirkamLander since the landing anomaly occurred.

#Chandrayaan2 orbiter continues to orbit the #Moon and is emitting strong radio signals that are currently being tracked and analyzed by amateur observers. The orbit appears to be around 100km and nearly circular and is stable.

There is some minor disagreement about the exact period of the orbit and we are working together to understand the discrepancy. However, we do agree the orbit is stable and the discrepancy is assumed to be related to our amateur measurement methods.

#NASA reported today that the LRO will be tasked to attempt to image the #VikramLander site this coming Monday, Sept. 17th. LRO is in a lunar polar orbit and well suited to image the Vikram landing site every 14 days if lighting conditions permit. spaceflightnow.com/2019/09/12/nas…

My station will continue to monitor for #VikramLander signals as long as the #DSN continues to search for it. However, the chances of my amateur station hearing a potential signal from Vikram are very slim.

The best hope we have is that an #ISRO and/or #NSAS DSN stations will hear a faint whisper from #VikramLander in response to high power beacon signals before lunar night descends and freezes the lander.

As #NASA #DSN operator @nascom1 mentioned yesterday on Twitter, the effort being made to communicate is standard procedure after an anomalous mission event like this. While there is always hope and that drives the search the prognosis of hearing from #VikramLander is not good.

Now lets sit back and enjoy an evening (my time) of satellite tracking and see if the universe reveals anything to us.

@scott23192 do you have AOS of Madrid on 2103.7? You'd earn another grid square 😉

#DSN Now shows that Madrid is signally for #VikramLander presently. Goldstone is just about to have #Moon rise and DSN 26 is tuning up for communication with #Chandrayaan2 orbiter. DSN24 is idle.

#DSN 26 at Goldstone, California appears to have started tracking and copying the #Chandrayaan2 orbiter as the #moon clears the local horizon there.

DSN 54 in Madrid still has the ball. I may actually get to hear the signal from there if it keeps up for a bit and the moon clears the trees... Here's the communication path geometry from Madrid->Moon->Vancouver

So far nothing on uplink on S-band directed at #VikramLander from Goldstone. I have clear view of Moon now and would expect signals if DSN26 was active. So DSN Now is not inaccurate.

DSN24 just changed status... Inactive.

DSN24 just switched to #VikramLander! Await tune up and tracking to start now.

Here we go folks, #Chandrayaan2 orbiter signal is loud and clear now. #Queqiao seen just above it. DSN24 is warming up so looks like they are still trying for #VikramLander lander.

#Chandrayaan2 orbiter returns to the Earth facing side of the Moon. Still no emissions for Goldstone towards #VikramLander.

I'm off to bed. The system is running on auto pilot and if anything interesting happens you'll all know tomorrow!