The five remaining competitors for the Google Lunar Xprize, including Bengaluru-based TeamIndus, have got a three-month extension in which to win the prize. The deadline to launch a spacecraft to the moon has been extended to March 31, 2018 (instead of December 31 this year), according to Google and Xprize, the sponsor and the promoter of the prize respectively.
The $30-million-plus prize is a contest for privately financed teams to land a spacecraft on the moon, deploy a rover, and perform a set of predetermined tasks.
TeamIndus had already tied up with the Indian Space Research Organisation's PSLV rocket to send its spacecraft, ECA (short for Ek Chotisi Asha , ‘one small wish’ in Hindi), to the moon on or around December 28. The qualification model of the ECA is ready to go to the testing facility this month, as planned.
A press release quoted Rahul Narayan, board member and Fleet Commander, as saying, “While we have been working hard on an aggressive time line, the change of date allows us to continue with that fervour to make sure that the mission makes history.”
Sheelika Ravishankar, TeamIndus Jedi Master, Marketing, told The Hindu that every month, there are two launch windows of three days, and the first viable window is December 28–30, 2017. “We are working closely with Antrix [the commercial wing of ISRO] on the launch window and are keeping them updated of our progress; if the need arises, to move the window beyond December 28, we will work with Antrix to figure out available alternatives.” Ms. Ravishankar said that the March deadline “only means a couple of extra weeks for us to run mission-critical tests a few more times.”
TeamIndus estimates its mission cost to be around Rs. 500 crore, which is being raised from private sector equity partners, corporate sponsors and public contributions. So far, only government-owned and public-funded space agencies have sent landing missions to Moon. India’s ISRO has planned its first lunar landing mission, Chandrayaan-2, in early 2018.
