The remains of India's first lunar lander were found on the moon – TechCrunch

India's Vikram Lander was very close to making its proud creators the fourth land in history to perish on the moon – but it was not to be, and the craft was lost. Now India has a bit of a standstill: the remnants of the lander were found on the lunar surface.

After the accident, the United States Moon Exploration Ore scanned the designated landing zone and took a few shots. Shanmuga Subramanian, an engineer from Channai, India, scanned her when he noticed the traces of debris.

I concluded that it could be something like [2-2.5 kilometers around] the landing pad, "Subramanian told India Today. He spent hours each day watching the pictures of the area. "I found a small white dot that is different from the environment. When I compared old pictures from the year 201

0, I realized that these were not there, and I thought it must be a piece of lander. He sent his findings via e-mail to NASA, which contacted him a short time later confirming what he had found. ISRO had originally stated that the lander bounced 500 meters from its planned landing site, and the actual point was about 750 meters northwest.

Upon closer inspection by experts, the impact site itself, as well as a number of debris and traces left in the lunar soil, fell as they fell.

ISRO and the agency's supporters are reluctant to see parts of their esteemed spaceship scattered on the lunar surface, but it's a guts reminder of how incredibly close they were to making this mission a success, and how proud the country can be of this achievement.