Team Indus

Team Indus

Aerospace Research Team

For-Profit Organisation
Industry Aerospace
Founder Rahul Narayan, Indranil Chakraborty, Sameer Joshi, Dilip Chabria, Julius Amrit
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Key people
 Rahul Narayan, Indranil Chakraborty, Sameer Joshi, Dilip Chabria, Julius Amrit
Website www.teamindus.in

Team Indus is a for-profit organisation headquartered in New Delhi, India. The team is led by Rahul Narayan, a Delhi-based IT professional.[1] The team of professionals from various backgrounds science, technology, finance and media is the only Indian team leading the charge of India to win the Google Lunar X Prize mission announced in year 2007. The mission often referred to as "Moon 2.0" is a challenge that calls for participating teams to design and land a robot on the Moon. The Robot is required to travel more than 500 meters on the lunar surface and send feedback to earth.[2] The deadline of the competition is December 31, 2015. The Indian entrant - Team Indus will be competing against 29 teams from 17 countries to win the US$20 million grand prize and additional prize worth US$5 million. The team raised $35M in December 2014 from investors including Subrata Mitra & Shekhar Kirani of Accel Partners, Sharad Sharma, former Yahoo India R&D head, Vivek Raghavan, chief product manager of UIDAI (the Aadhaar project), Pallaw Sharma, director of analytics at Microsoft, serial entrepreneur Bala Parthasarthy, and part of the AngelPrime angel investor group, Sunil Kalra, entrepreneur & investor, Paras Chopra and Pallav Nadhani.

In January 2015 the Team Indus were awarded $1 million for having successfully completed a test of their landing system.[3] It was among five out of 29 teams to have been awarded for clearing a specified test.

Mission

The Team Indus aims at reaching the destination ahead of the other participating teams. The team also plans to attempt the endurance and distance bonus prizes. To accomplish the same, they reckon on designing a lunar lander and two rovers. The two rovers together are planned to have a mass of around 15 kg.[4] One rover will compete for the main task i.e. to travel more than 500 meters on the lunar surface and send feedback to the earth. The other rover will compete for the US$5 million worth prize by completing additional tasks beyond baseline requirements to win grand or the second place prize, such as survival and range.[5]

The spacecraft is envisaged to transport the two rovers in the lunar lander from earth's surface to orbit around the moon. The lunar lander will be the primary communication and control center and will also absorb the lunar touchdown impact.[5]

The original plan for the launch date was 2014,[6] in 2016 a launch contract for a launch in 2017 was secured.[7] The mission to the moon is planned as a Launch - Coast - Burn - Direct Lunar Descent trajectory. Team Indus plans at launching the rovers by PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) operated by ISRO - Indian Space Research Organisation, for which the proposal has been made. The planned mission duration is 30 earth days. The mass at launch is approximated at 900 kg and total Lunar payload mass is approximated at 40 kg.[6]

Team Indus Lunar Lander code named HHK1 is envisioned as a universal airless body landing platform. The team plans at further modification of the HHK1 for other terrestrial and inter-stellar application after the Google Lunar X Prize is over. For the present mission the HHK1 is the main communication and control unit consisting of Payload, Propulsion, Structural and other sub-systems.[6]

In 2013, Team Indus moved from Delhi to Bangalore due to the strategic location of the city, which is nicknamed as the Silicon Valley of India. ISRO is based in Bangalore and is crucial to the future plans of the team since the team needs a commercial launch vehicle. Furthermore, the state capital has also excellent aerospace companies that can help the team with building the lander and rover. L&T is helping by reviewing designs, Sasken has given space in its Bangalore facility for the team to operate out of and several former ISRO scientists are providing advice.[6]

References

  1. ↑ e-news, ibnlive. "ibnlive blog".
  2. ↑ The times of India E-newspaper http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/mobile.aspx?article=yes&pageid=19&sectid=edid=&edlabel=TOIM&mydateHid=19-02-2011&pubname=Times+of+India+-+Mumbai&edname=&articleid=Ar01906&publabel=TOI. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ http://www.cnet.com/news/glxp-milestone-prizes-awarded/
  4. ↑ "Indian team in lunar rover competition". Hindu e-news. Chennai, India. 10 April 2011. Retrieved 31 October 2016. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  5. 1 2 "The Team Indus is moving to Center Stage".
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Team Indus Website". Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  7. ↑ "Indian space start-up's lunar dream gets ISRO support; aims for global prize!". Zee News. 2016-10-31. Retrieved 2016-10-31.

External links

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