Will Vikram lander on moon wake up ?

A priceless pic of Moon .. Courtesy NASA, LRO.

It was not only Indians and ISRO who were frantic to know what had happened to the Indian lander on Moon, Vikram, the whole world was. NASA's Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter (LRO) sent this image of the spot where Vikram had a crash landing two weeks back on 7 September 2019 early morning.

The lunar night is evident from the dark patch, no sunlight, that was fast approaching from the right side, as the moon is rotating from left to right.

If ISRO had installed the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) on the lander, probably even during the lunar night the search operation could have continued. ISRO has just solar panels on the lander and there are strategic reasons for that too, not to pollute the lunar surface with unnecessary radioactive materials that could be a threat to future lunar colonies etc.

With temperatures going to -180deg C on the Moon during the night, will  the systems on Vikram survive the extreme cold to pick up and still be active when the lunar day starts in 16 days time from now ?

A big question for India and a less hopeful one at that. But the learning is too good.

George.