IF the lander is intact & titled, as stated, it is highly unlikely that is came down, presumably with some horizontal velocity component at 110 mph. Those two things are in conflict with eachother. Doppler data is good for state changes not precise trajectory reconstruction.
The Vikram lander has been found, but the odds that it is in working condition are long. Doppler data indicate it landed at more than 110 miles per hour.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/science/india-chandrayaan-2-vikram.html …
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The ISRO statement does not say intact and tilted. (Only an unnamed official said that.) We haven’t seen any photos from the orbiter at 100 km.
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Why are they sending it signals then? Is there actual doubt Doppler data? Are they trying pretend that somehow they got closer to success than they did?
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@cgbassa concludes the loss of signal coincides with impact. Maybe he’s wrong and the lander was still several hundred feet up and a final engine burn saved it in time.
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Ur writeup has good coverage n thx for writing for Chandrayaan 2. One question: it is clear from all analysis dat signal was lost much BEFORE the lander reached surface. What can cause such signal loss in mid air?
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The ISRO plot suggests loss of signal at a few hundred meters above the surface. At 50 m/s, that’s 8 seconds. Given there’s a malfunction and the spacecraft is not operating as designed, errors in reported altitude aren’t implausible.
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What was the maximum G force the lander designed to survive?
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I don’t know but probably not the equivalent of slamming into a wall at race car speeds.
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You wrote "In the history of spaceflight, robotic probes that suffer a malfunction while landing on another world are not heard from again." But what about
@Philae2014 from the@ESA_Rosetta mission which was thought to be lost on the surface of#comet67P at first. 1/2 -
But later on it was found on a different place, it still worked and made a great job in the end. 2/2
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