BENGALURU: The Indian Space Research Organisation ( Isro ) is yet to reestablish contact with the Vikram lander, three days after the lunar probe made a “hard landing” during its final descent to the moon, according to scientists aware of the developments.The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which has eight instruments on board including a high-resolution camera that can take pictures as small as 0.3 metres across, has captured images of Vikram on the lunar surface. The lander was found ‘tilted’ close to its designated landing spot in the lunar south pole region, a scientist said, raising concerns that its communications equipment could have been damaged.“Our efforts to connect with Vikram have not stopped,” said an Isro scientist. “It is a huge task as we need to activate the power controls. The solar panels that will power the systems are delicate and we don’t know their status,” the official said.Isro chairman K Sivan was not immediately available for comment. An Isro spokesperson did not respond to calls.On Saturday, Isro had lost contact with Vikram — which is carrying the ‘ Pragyan ’ rover — when it was 2.1 km above the lunar surface.Isro has said it would be able to extend the life of the orbiter to seven years from the planned one year due to sufficient fuel onboard the spacecraft.As reported by, one of the key reasons for the “hard landing” could have been loss of control during the final moments of touchdown, owing to malfunctioning of one of the five thrusters that were to slow down the spacecraft from a speed of around 6,000 km/hour to zero.This could have destabilised the vehicle, causing it to tumble down on to the moon’s surface, scientists said.During a preliminary review, Isro scientists had also deliberated whether there were “gaps in the understanding of the lunar atmosphere” closer to its surface. Such data is not available in the public domain and the space agencies of Russia, the US and China — that have landed probes on the moon — do not share this information, the scientist said.Isro lost communication with Vikram just before it entered the final landing phase of its 15-minute descent from a height of 30 km above the lunar surface.Isro chairman Sivan has said the Chandrayaan-2 mission has achieved “90-95%” of its objectives and the data thus generated would be useful for the global scientific community.Chandrayaan-2 was a followup to the Chandrayaan-1 mission launched a decade ago, which discovered the presence of water on moon.