The lone Indian entry in a global Moon landing contest, TeamIndus, as also its four global competitors have got a three-month extension to complete their unique space feat.
The deadline to land a rover on Moon is now extended to March 31, 2018 instead of December 31 this year, according to Google and XPRIZE. The two agencies are sponsoring the audacious $30-million-plus Google Lunar XPrize (GLXP) contest for privately financed teams.
Bengaluru-based TeamIndus has hired the Indian Space Research Organisation’s PSLV rocket to send its spacecraft, ECA, to Moon on or around December 28. It estimates its mission around ₹500 crore, to be equally supported by private sector equity partners, corporate sponsors and by public contributions.
So far, only government-owned and public funded space agencies have sent landing missions to Moon, while ISRO has planned its first lunar landing mission, Chandrayaan-2, in early 2018.
A release quoted Rahul Narayan, its board member and Fleet Commander, as saying, “While we have been working hard on an aggressive timeline, the change of date allows us to continue [working] with that fervour to make sure that the mission makes history.”
Sheelika Ravishankar, TeamIndus Jedi Master, Marketing, told The Hindu, “We are working closely with Antrix [Corporation Ltd, the commercial wing of ISRO] on the launch window and are keeping them updated of our progress, [and] if the need arises, to move the window beyond December 28. We will work with Antrix to figure out available alternatives.”