If you are an Indian and want to get your name fly to moon and be immortalized forever, here is what you need to do. Just pay Rs 500 to Team Indus— an India-based aerospace startup that is striving to be the first Indian private entity to soft-land their rover on moon.
Team Indus is an Indian space startup based in Bengaluru. The team recently launched a crowdfunding initiative recently, announcing to offer an opportunity to every Indian leave their names on the moon for just Rs 500. Those paying money to Team Indus will have their names micro-engraved on a small aluminum object. A spacecraft will then take these names to moon and a lander will then place the aluminum object on the surface of moon, thus immortalize them forever.
So far 10000 Indians have sent their entries for one-of-a-kid mission, although Team Indus is looking to raise up to $10 million through support of about 1.4 million citizens. If the team is able to raise that much money, it will compete for additional $30 million funds from the Lunar X Prize (GLXP), announced by Google to encourage private firm to try to establish a viable business beyond Earth. To win the GLXP prize money, participants not only need to reach the Moon before December 31, 2017, but they will also have to get their rovers walk at least 500 meters on the lunar surface and send high quality video/images back to Earth.
The launch of the spacecraft is planned for December 28 this year atop ISRO’s PSLV rocket, that will complete a journey of 3.84 lakh kilometres from Earth before the lander is able to make a soft-landing on lunar surface on 26, 2018. So far, only three countries have succeeded in getting their spacecraft land on moon.
Team Indus is not the only private firm in the world that wants to send its spacecraft to moon. Moon Express, an American space exploration firm has already raised $20 million to hit the moon by the end of 2017. The firm plans to land a 9-kg package of scientific gear, including a telescope, on lunar surface.
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