Bangalore, Aug 30 - Indian scientists are still trying to restore radio contact with the lunarcraft Chandrayaan-1, but the chances of re-establishing contact are slim, a senior space official said Sunday.

'Efforts are still on to restore the signal with the mooncraft though chances are slim. If we fail to establish the link again, we may call off the mission much earlier than the two-year schedule,' Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S. Satish told IANS.

A team of scientists and technicians have been working since early Saturday to re-establish radio contact with the 514-kg lunarcraft from the space agency's telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) at Peenya on the outskirts of the city.

'We are trying to alter the position of the antenna onboard the spacecraft so as to activate the signals for sending and receiving commands. No success so far. We are keeping our fingers crossed, as we have no information on what's happening there,' Satish admitted.

At the same time, another team of scientists and communication experts are analysing the data last received from the spacecraft at 12.25 a.m. Saturday at the Deep Space Network (DSN) near Byalalu, about 40 km from this tech hub, to pinpoint what went wrong for the communication link to snap.

DSN first lost radio contact with Chandrayaan at 1.30 a.m. Saturday when it was over north America.

'The condition of the spacecraft is like that of a patient in an intensive care unit (ICU). We can't say it's dead and gone when efforts are still on to revive it. There are instances of the US space agency abandoning its Mars mission for weeks before establishing contact again,' Satish asserted.