The chances of India’s Moon lander waking up after a freezing cold lunar night are “diminishing with each passing hour,” space scientists said.

It was not clear how long the lunar day would last, but they said they would keep trying.

Just over 14 Earth days pass between a day and a night on the Moon.

Space agency Isro said it tried to contact the lander and rover after a new lunar day began, but had not received any communications.

In August, the lander Vikram, carrying a rover named Pragyaan, touched down near the south pole of the Moon. After gathering data and images for two weeks, they went into ‘sleep mode’ at lunar nightfall.

When the lunar Sun rose around 22 September, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) hoped the batteries would recharge and the modules would reawaken.

On Friday, Isro posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “efforts will continue to establish communication with the Vikram lander and Pragyaan rover”. Since then, no official updates have been released.

AS Kiran Kumar, former Isro chief, announced on Monday morning that “chances of reawakening are dimming with each passing hour”.

In addition, temperatures near the lunar south pole are known to plunge to -200C to -250C (-328F to -418F) at night, making the lander and rover unlikely to survive the frigid temperatures.

There is no way to know whether the lander is alive unless the transmitter on the lander comes on. It must tell us that it is alive. Even if all the other sub-systems work, we have no way of knowing it.

It is being attempted to contact the lander and rover, according to an Isro spokesperson.