Google Moon Mission Aspirants Want 'Every Indian's Shot At The Moon'

New Delhi: The mission is called 'HarIndianKaMoonshot'. A group called TeamIndus is working away to be the first privately funded group to land on the moon and send a robot to travel at least 500 metres on the moon surface and send back high-quality images to Earth. 

TeamIndus is taking part in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition where private teams are rushing to meet the deadline for the launch.

Former ISRO scientists are bringing their experience to support the team. 

This was a crucial week for TeamIndus as a panel of judges visited Team Indus's Bengaluru facility to see their progress and review their Mission Plan. The 5 day visit of space scientists and aerospace engineers included a look at the models of the spacecraft and the moon rover ECA. A simulation of the mooncast was also included. 

The panel Chairman, Professor Alan Wells, winner of the Arthur C Clarke Lifetime Achievement Award, said they were impressed by the Team's progress. Independent judge, John Zarnecki, Director at the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland, told NDTV "We were checking parameters like whether the rover would actually be able to go and cover the required 500 metres. We can't go to the moon and check! We were very impressed with what we saw."

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Amanda Stiles, Technical Director GLXP, told NDTV "After they won the one million dollar prize back in 2015, I knew this place deserved close attention. They are doing really well."

The journey began back in 2010. The team now has over 100 engineers and 20 former ISRO scientists. One of the veterans, V Perumal, whose designation is a rather jazzy Jedi Master spent 36 years with ISRO. He told NDTV, "I think the judges were more than satisfied with what they saw." His young colleague, Adithya, a Systems Engineer, said "It is so great to work with the experiences people from ISRO -the work of ISRO was what made me join this field. We don't know what the other 4 top teams are planning, but I think we have a good shot at winning. 

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TeamIndus has a contact with ISRO to launch its spacecraft on the PSLV - XL which will inject the spacecraft into the Earth's orbit. The team then needs to land the spacecraft on the moon and have its rover travel on the moon and send back images. 

Two years ago, TeamIndus had won a million dollar prize for demonstrating the landing technology of its spacecraft on the moon. 

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The 30 million dollar Google Lunar XPRIZE was launched to encourage low cost robotic space exploration.