TeamIndus launches competition to get your payload to moon

BENGALURU: TeamIndus, a space-technology startup, today announced the launch of Lab2Moon, a competition to for young people globally to create an experimental payload to fly on board the TeamIndus spacecraft set to be launched to the Moon in late 2017. This will be the first opportunity for a non-government experiment to fly to the moon since 1976.
Rahul Narayan, co-founder of Team Indus, said, "The TeamIndus mission is designed to be democratic, inclusive and driven by the people.Lab2Moon reflects that ethos."
Registrations opened on Tuesday on the company’s website and will be closed on August 20.

Teams of up to three members will be required to write a 300 word overview of their project, share drawings and upload a 2-minute video explaining why it should go to the Moon. The payload should be under 250 grams and should be able to communicate with the mothership.
A jury of internationally-renowned scientists and technologists including Dr K Kasturirangan, former chairman of ISRO, will shortlist 20 teams by the 25th of August, 2016. The winner will be declared on 26th January, 2017.
TeamIndus is the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The startup has already won a $1 million milestone prize. There are over 85 engineers and 15 former ISRO scientists who are helping TeamIndus design and develop its proprietary technology from its headquarters in Jakkur, north Bangalore.

To win the Google Lunar XPRIZE, a privately funded team must successfully place a robot on the moon’s surface that explores at least 500 meters and transmits high-definition video and images back to Earth.
Narayan hopes to launch the rover on moon's surface by end of 2017 and wants to close the next round of funding as soon as possible. He declined to give an exact timeline. He said they are in talks with ISRO for a designated launch vehicle on a commercial basis.