Does India Plan To Brew Beer On The Moon?

Check out how the government responded, when a MLA asked PM Narendra Modi this question.

Photo Courtesy: Team Indus (Photo Altered By The Quint)

Does India have plans to brew beer on the moon?

Before you jump to conclusion that we have lost our marbles for asking silly questions like this one, let us clarify and tell you that it isn't entirely ill-placed.

In fact, while addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trinamool Congress MP Sisir Kumar Adhikari had raised the same question in Lok Sabha on Thursday, as reported by Huffington Post.

The questions raised were:

(a) Whether an Indian Spacecraft is planning to brew beer on the moon;

(b) If so, the details of research plan and viability of yeast test therefore;

(c) The universal rules on moon lander therein?

Source

To which the government answered with this:

No Madam. There is no plan to brew beer on the moon by any spacecraft to be made by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). However, Team Indus, a privately funded team under the Axiom Research Labs Pvt. Ltd., is competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition towards building a spacecraft capable of soft landing and roving on the Moon. The spacecraft is proposed to be launched on board ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) under a commercial launch agreement. As understood from media reports, Team Indus is proposing an experiment to brew beer on the Moon using yeast. 

Government Of India, Read full text of the answer <a href="http://164.100.47.194/Loksabha/Questions/QResult15.aspx?qref=48462&amp;lsno=16">here.</a>

The researchers in question here, Team Indus are an Indian start-up, and one of the 25 teams competing for a spot with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for a booster flight aboard a moon lander that's scheduled to launch on 28 December 2017. And the whole idea to brew came from testing viability of yeast on the moon.