25 experiments are in fray for flying on the TeamIndus spacecraft to the moon

BANGALORE, INDIA: An experiment that seeks to study photosynthesis on the Moon, another that will explore water recycling in space by using the electrocoagulation effect and filters on urine, yet another that will try to find out if cosmic radiation on the lunar surface can be used to generate electricity. There's even one that will try and brew beer to study yeast formation.

Well, these are some of the 25 out-of-the-world experiments that are in a race to fly to the Moon aboard the TeamIndus Spacecraft scheduled for launch in 2017. TeamIndus is among the three top contenders and the only Indian team for the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE– a challenge to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration.

In June, 2016, the space technology startup, TeamIndus invited 14-25 years old youngsters to participate in its Lab2Moon contest, where they need to create a project that will fly aboard the TeamIndus spacecraft. The shortlisted entries come from several countries including India, Peru, Italy, United States, United Kingdom, Spain and Mexico.

Rahul Narayan, TeamIndus Fleet Commander, said, “We are absolutely thrilled that as many as 3000 teams from all around the world participated in this race to the Moon. There are so many great ideas; that we will have to send multiple experiments to the Moon! The investigations will definitely catalyse our understanding of viable living options beyond our planet and could ultimately result in better, more sustainable practices back on earth as well.”

The shortlisted teams have each been assigned mentors from TeamIndus, each of whom will work closely with the teams to ensure that the standards needed for space grade experiments are observed and maintained. The experiments have created excitement in the corporate world with a few companies expressing interest to support the teams in their efforts.

The winning experiments, that will fly on the TeamIndus spacecraft to the Moon will be announced in March 2017 after an extensive development program, during the course of which TeamIndus will actively participate to help the teams make their projects space-worthy.

“Being shortlisted in Lab2Moon competition is a fantastic opportunity for us to glimpse into the space industry. The possibility of taking our experiment to the moon and making an influence on human evolution is an extremely exciting prospect,” said Sam Brass of LunaDome, a team from the University of Bath, UK.

Keertivardhan M Joshi of Lunar Leap, a team from Bangalore, India says, “The objectives of this competition is in perfect resonance with our aspirations. Being space enthusiasts, we always had the urge to do something that was totally out of this world. This is going to be a historic mission and the very fact that this will be India's first ever attempt to soft-land on Moon, made it irresistible to us.”