It seems it was supposed to be a polar landing, which should be harder (I think) than landing from an equatorial arrival
Nonetheless, this is rocket science and failures are very common and not unexpected. Too bad, but it happens.
Nonetheless, this is rocket science and failures are very common and not unexpected. Too bad, but it happens.
Apart from that, I’d presume theres also complexity of the landing site not being directly visible from earth, necessitating re-transmissions from the orbiter.
Not something that hasn’t been done before by any chance, but still harder than say USSR’s lunokhod missions.
Though this is mostly coming from my Kerbal Space Program experience.
(But then of course the moon is neither too far nor too big so I might just be barking at the wrong tree here)
[0]https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mangaluru/ISRO-chie...
It ended up in a very eccentric polar orbit with its axis pointing at Earth, swinging way out to the left as viewed from Earth. It spent the next week circularizing, after which it was in a nearly circular polar orbit but, because the moon is swinging around, the axis pointed along the moon's orbital path, such that only half of its orbit was in view of (and in radio contact) with Earth. A few days after that it (or, rather, the moon) had swung around enough to put the orbiter in line of sight to Earth for most of its orbit very close to the moon.