TeamIndus Aims For The Moon, Makes Google Lunar X Prize Finals

TeamIndus now has to place a robot on the moon’s surface, explore it & transmit images to Earth before March 2018.

Rover prepared by TeamIndus for the Google Lunar X Prize

(Photo: AP Screengrab)

Bengaluru-based firm TeamIndus has made it to the finals of the Google Lunar XPrize (GLXP) competition.

TeamIndus is the lone Indian team to make it to the $30 million competition for the first private spacecraft to land softly on the moon, travel 500 metres and send high-definition imagery back to earth.

The five teams who have made it to the finals are: SpaceIL (Israel), Moon Express (US), Synergy Moon (International), TeamIndus (India), and HAKUTO (Japan).

TeamIndus was formed in 2011 to be a part of the competition, which has a deadline of March 2018 for teams to complete this mission and to compete for the prize.

In 2015, the firm won $1 million from GLXP for demonstrating its landing technology. The team simulated how the rover would work on the moon, by remotely controlling the rover and beaming videos captured by the rover on a projector.

TeamIndus is the first team to invite the technical team at XPrize and an individual judging panel for a mission review.

They’ve created this very vibrant, dynamic, and professional organization that really has a chance of doing something crazy. They (TeamIndus) are within striking distance.

John Zarnecki, Director at the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland

According to the TeamIndus website, the spacecraft is scheduled to take off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota later this year. The PSLV will send the spacecraft into an orbit 800 km x 70000 km above the surface of the earth.

From there on, the spacecraft will set course to the moon by switching on its own engines in a series of complex orbital manoeuvres.

What it means for the rest of the world is that, young and enthusiastic engineers can also achieve something as to go to the moon. That’s the message we are sending in to the world that young generation is up for the challenge

Ananth Ramesh, Structural designer & Analyst, TeamIndus

(With inputs from AP)

Video Editor: Vivek Gupta

(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT in partnership with #MyRightToBreathe to find a solution to pollution. Send in your suggestions to [e-mail] or WhatsApp @ [phone].)