Chandrayaan 3 News: Vikram Bhai, how are you? NASA asked about the condition of Chandrayaan-3 lander

Newsdesk:

Chandrayaan-3 Lander Vikram: NASA has pinged Chandrayaan-3's lander 'Vikram' resting on the Moon.  NASA transmitted a laser beam between the spacecraft circling the Moon and the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) mounted on Vikram.  There was also reflection from there.  This has been done for the first time on the moon.  This has provided a new way to get the exact location of a target on the lunar surface.
 NASA said in a statement, 'On December 12, 2023, at 3 pm (EST), NASA's Lunar Recon Orbiter (LRO) pointed its lateral altimeter instrument towards Vikram.  When LRO transmitted the laser pulse towards it, the lander was 100 kilometers away from LRO, near Manginus Crater in the south pole region of the Moon.  When the orbiter recorded the light returned from NASA's small retroreflector mounted on Vikram, NASA scientists knew that their technique had finally worked.'
 ISRO said that LRO has started working as a fiducial point (exact marker) on the moon.  Xiaoli Sun, head of the NASA team that built the reflector, said that this achievement 'opens the door to a new style of locating targets on the lunar surface.'
 It is common to track satellites from Earth through laser, but using that technology to locate vehicles on the surface from space is very special.  This could open the way for a safe landing on the moon.
 According to NASA, this technology can be used in many ways in the future.  Uses are possible ranging from guiding astronauts to automatic landing of supply ships near the base.