Bengaluru based private aerospace company TeamIndus has announced it will send a spacecraft to the moon on Dec 28, 2017 abroad an ISRO rocket. The mission’s aim is to land this spacecraft on the moon.
It needs to travel at least 5000m and the beam high resolution video, data and images back to earth
In 2008, the
Chandrayaan 1 became the
first India space mission to send a spacecraft that circled the moon.
Except for the launch vehicle, all the technology powering the rover and the lander is developed in-house by Team Indus.
The company has high profile investors like Ratan Tata (Chairman Emeritus of the TATA Group) Sachin and Binny Bansal (Flipkart) and Nandan Nilekani (co-founder of Infosys Ltd)
It is staffed by a 100 member team of engineers, space enthusiasts, former Air Force pilots and ex ISRO employees
It is one of the 4 international teams and the only one from India to run the Google LunarXPrize a, USD 30 million or INR 200 crore competition to encourage private companies to launch space missions
Two US based companies Moon Express and Synergy Moon and Israeli company SPACE 1L have announced agreements with space launch vehicle companies like SpaceX
Other than technical requirements, prize rules also require the companies to be 90 percent privately funded.
Chandrayaan-1India’s first mission to the moon.
Launched from SDSC, SHAR, Sriharikota
Date of launch: Oct 22, 2008
Spacecraft carried 11 scientific instruments built in: India, US, UK, Germany, Sweden, Bulgaria
Weight: 1380 kg (Mass at lift off)
Onboard power: 700 Watts
Mission Life: 2 years
Scientific Payloads from India:1. Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC)
2. Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI)
3. Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI)
4. High Energy X - ray Spectrometer (HEX)
5. Moon Impact Probe(MIP)
Scientific Payloads from abroad:1. Chandrayaan-I X-ray Spectrometer (CIXS)
2. Near Infrared Spectrometer (SIR - 2)
3. Sub keV Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARA)
4. Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini SAR)
5. Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3)
6. Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM)
