BENGALURU: Even as there is wide-spread debate on whether rover Pragyaan is still active, Dr K Radhakrishnan, former chairman of the Space Commission and ISRO, does not seem to be too optimistic.
“To my understanding, the life of the rover was to be 14 earth days based on the power supply and thermal management systems used. And that period is over,” he said during an address to space enthusiasts at a conference on the ‘Indian Space Programme in the New Space Age’ on Sunday.
He was responding to a query in the wake of Chennai-based techie Shanmuga Subramanian’s observations that Pragyaan “had rolled out a few metres from the skeleton Vikram lander whose payloads got disintegrated due to rough landing”.
Shanmuga gained credibility after his finding of the Vikram’s debris on the lunar surface was confirmed by NASA.
Following this, debates raged on the possibility of the techie’s observation being correct or not. And now, whether the rover could be still alive.