Author Topic: Team Indus Lunar Lander/Rover  (Read 82132 times)

Offline vyoma

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Team Indus Lunar Lander/Rover
« on: 12/12/2014 11:16 am »
India-based Team Indus is one of the contenders in Google Lunar X-Prize. Posting updates related to Team Indus' Moon lander and rover in this thread.

Lunar X-Prize page: http://lunar.xprize.org/teams/team-indus

Team Indus lander, rover designs and mission strategy: http://www.teamindus.in/mission/ , http://www.teamindus.in/blogs/


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Operator: Axiom Research Labs

Registered Team: Team Indus, a Google Lunar X Prize team

Mission type: Lunar Rover

Proposed Launch date: Q4-2015

Proposed trajectory: 9 Steps to Moon
1. G1 – Initial Orbit: 880 x 71,000 km
2. G2 – 48 hours
3. G3 – 144 hours
4. G4 – Lunar Transfer Trajectory
5. S1 – Initial Lunar orbit with capture burn of 250 seconds
6. S2 – Orbit lowered to 3500 km apolune
7. S3 – Parking orbit – 100 x 100 km
8. S4 – Orbit lowered 12.6 km perilune
9. Descent Trajectory – braking from 1.7 km/s

Launch vehicle:
PSLV operated by ISRO (proposed)

Launch site:
SDSC, Sriharikota (proposed)

Mission duration:
Flight duration: 30 days
Surface operations: 10-15 days

Orbital parameters:
Earth Inclination : 19.2 degrees
Moon Inclination: 143 degrees
Argument of Perigee: 178 degrees

Delta – V:
Orbital – 1270 m/s
Descent – 1940 m/s
Net – 3210 m/s

Mass:
Lift off Mass: ~ 600kgs
Propellant Mass: ~ 404 kg
Landed Mass: ~210 kg

Total Lunar Payload mass: ~ 20kgs



Team Indus is one of the five teams short-listed for additional "milestone" prizes:
1) Landing system ($1 million): Astrobotic, Moon Express, Team Indus
2) Mobility subsystem ($500,000): Astrobotic, Moon Express, Hakuto, Part-Time-Scientists
3) Imaging subsystem ($250,000): Astrobotic, Moon Express, Part-Time-Scientists, Team Indus

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Indian-team-among-leaders-in-Google-prize-to-land-a-craft-on-the-Moon/articleshow/30688173.cms
http://gigaom.com/2014/02/19/lunar-xprize-gives-5-teams-a-shot-at-an-extra-6-million-in-race-to-the-moon/
« Last Edit: 03/21/2018 03:20 am by gongora »

Offline vyoma

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #1 on: 12/12/2014 11:16 am »

Offline vyoma

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #2 on: 12/12/2014 11:18 am »
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Moon-Mission-Giant-leap-for-startup/articleshow/45466298.cms

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The new investors in the venture include Subrata Mitra & Shekhar Kirani of Accel Partners (they have invested in their individual capacities), 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 based in Redmond, Bala Parthasarthy, serial entrepreneur and part of the AngelPrime angel investor group, Sunil Kalra, entrepreneur & investor, Paras Chopra and Pallav Nadhani, both founders of successful startups.

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The Google Lunar XPrize, which carries $40 million in prize money, also requires that a rover will dismount from the landing craft and travel 500 metres on the lunar surface, and take high quality images.

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Going by the latest reviews of the project by top space scientists, Team Indus could well achieve its mission. V Adimurthy, a senior ISRO advisor and designer of the Mars orbiter mission, said about two years ago, when he first met Team Indus, there were many loose ends. "Three months ago there was another review, and what I saw made very good sense. It has become a very feasible project, and I think they can do it," he said.

Offline vyoma

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #3 on: 12/12/2014 11:20 am »
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Indias-Team-Indus-goes-for-the-moon-shot/articleshow/45492162.cms

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For Team Indus, a huge boost came in February, when Google Lunar XPrize named the team among the five finalists for what it called milestone prizes -teams that had achieved certain technological landmarks and appeared closest to reaching the final objective. Team Indus was among three named for the landing system and among four named for the imaging system. Only two US teams -Astrobotic and Moon Express -were named in all three categories, including the rover.

Since the landing system is regarded the most complicated and carried the highest prize money (of $1 million), Team Indus was seen as No. 3 in the race.

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Another big boost came three months ago when senior Indian space scientists did a design review and showered the team with praises. "We had tears in our eyes when we heard the fantastic evaluation," says Narayan.

V Adimurthy, the Mars orbiter mission designer for ISRO, has recommended to ISRO that Team Indus be provided launch network and ground services. Team Indus will also need ISRO's launch vehicle when the project is ready, and lots more funding in the months to come.
« Last Edit: 12/12/2014 11:31 am by vyoma »

Offline abhishek

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #4 on: 12/12/2014 11:22 am »


Should have build a smaller compact lander.
« Last Edit: 12/26/2016 04:37 pm by input~2 »
10, 9, ignition sequence start 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, all engines running Lift off, we have a lift off, lift off

Offline vyoma

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #5 on: 12/12/2014 11:30 am »
They seem to have done a PDR recently (Sep 2014):
http://www.teamindus.in/2014/09/team-indus-pdr/

Offline vyoma

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #6 on: 01/27/2015 06:03 am »
http://www.space.com/28365-google-lunar-xprize-milestones.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Team-Indus-wins-major-prize-in-Google-Lunar-race/articleshow/46024870.cms

XPrize "milestone" prizes were given out recently.

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The 9 awarded Milestone Prizes are as follows:
Astrobotic (US): IMAGING ($250,000), MOBILITY ($500,000), LANDING ($1M)

Hakuto (Japan): MOBILITY ($500,000)

Moon Express (US): IMAGING ($250,000), LANDING ($1M)

Part-Time Scientists (Germany): IMAGING ($250,000), MOBILITY ($500,000)

Team Indus (India): LANDING ($1M)

Offline Steven Pietrobon

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #7 on: 01/27/2015 06:43 am »
From the Indiatimes link

"Team Indus requires $35 million to build the final pieces and launch the craft."

With $25M left in the prize pot, that means that Team Indus will be $10M in the red, even if they win!
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline Moe Grills

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #8 on: 01/27/2015 05:02 pm »
From the Indiatimes link

"Team Indus requires $35 million to build the final pieces and launch the craft."

With $25M left in the prize pot, that means that Team Indus will be $10M in the red, even if they win!

Maybe someone in that team has a rich uncle.

Offline seshagirib

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #9 on: 01/28/2015 03:17 pm »
From the Indiatimes link

"Team Indus requires $35 million to build the final pieces and launch the craft."

With $25M left in the prize pot, that means that Team Indus will be $10M in the red, even if they win!

I am guessing that none of the teams can hope to get out of the red, hope Google will increase the prize money.
astronaut on space ship earth

Offline Gabbar

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #10 on: 02/10/2015 04:09 am »
We will land on the moon, being first will be icing on the cake: Rahul Narayan

Quote
So you don't now anticipate any funding challenges?

(The team needs about $35 million.) It will still be a challenge. But the good news is, some of our ideas and theories stand validated. We hope to get one large global consumer brand to sponsor half of our requirements. The other half we will raise through equity . For that, the support I have seen among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs gives hope.

Offline ChrisWilson68

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #11 on: 02/10/2015 04:14 am »
From the Indiatimes link

"Team Indus requires $35 million to build the final pieces and launch the craft."

With $25M left in the prize pot, that means that Team Indus will be $10M in the red, even if they win!

I am guessing that none of the teams can hope to get out of the red, hope Google will increase the prize money.

Yeah, the fatal flaw in the GLXP is that the prize amounts are just too low to justify the cost.

If SpaceX can manage to greatly lower launch costs, maybe the current prize amounts would make sense in 5 or 10 years, but not today.

Offline seshagirib

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #12 on: 02/10/2015 10:31 am »
We will land on the moon, being first will be icing on the cake: Rahul Narayan

Just quoting him in full ( so that we do not lose any of the teams intentions or flavour)

Quote
We will definitely land on the moon. It will be icing on the cake to be the first one to do it. We are not the kind of people who are happy to settle for second place.
astronaut on space ship earth

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #13 on: 02/11/2015 07:22 pm »
From the Indiatimes link

"Team Indus requires $35 million to build the final pieces and launch the craft."

With $25M left in the prize pot, that means that Team Indus will be $10M in the red, even if they win!

I am guessing that none of the teams can hope to get out of the red, hope Google will increase the prize money.

Yeah, the fatal flaw in the GLXP is that the prize amounts are just too low to justify the cost.

If SpaceX can manage to greatly lower launch costs, maybe the current prize amounts would make sense in 5 or 10 years, but not today.
Listen to latest TMRO (spacevidcast) show in regards to the prize amount. It was never designed for winning team to get rich.

Offline ChrisWilson68

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #14 on: 02/11/2015 07:45 pm »
From the Indiatimes link

"Team Indus requires $35 million to build the final pieces and launch the craft."

With $25M left in the prize pot, that means that Team Indus will be $10M in the red, even if they win!

I am guessing that none of the teams can hope to get out of the red, hope Google will increase the prize money.

Yeah, the fatal flaw in the GLXP is that the prize amounts are just too low to justify the cost.

If SpaceX can manage to greatly lower launch costs, maybe the current prize amounts would make sense in 5 or 10 years, but not today.
Listen to latest TMRO (spacevidcast) show in regards to the prize amount. It was never designed for winning team to get rich.

Sure, but it seems clear that it has not been a success so far.  Some people may look at it and say, "Look, this shows prizes don't really work".  I think it's worth considering whether making sure prizes at least cover the costs of the winner get more bang for the buck.  It still leverages more investment than the prize money because all the losers also invest, and it has the advantage of using competition to make the best use of resources.  Compared with just selecting among proposals and giving the money ahead of time as a grant, I think that kind of prize is much more effective.  And it may be more effective than a GLXP-style prize where even the winner ends up deep in the red.

Offline Ohsin

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #15 on: 02/13/2015 06:59 am »
Team Indus will be doing an AMA(ask me anything on Reddit) on 14th February, 1100 - 1230 IST.

https://twitter.com/TeamIndus/status/565872029300056064

EDIT: Q&A
« Last Edit: 02/14/2015 10:45 am by Ohsin »
"Well, three cheers to Sharma, but our real baby is INSAT."

Offline vyoma

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Offline vyoma

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Offline johnxx9

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Offline Ohsin

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Re: Google Lunar X-Prize - Team Indus - Updates
« Reply #19 on: 02/06/2016 11:07 am »
Some news on their crowd funding plan.

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A name with less than 24 characters will be micro-etched on a 2 inch by 2 inch black cube, which, along with a rover ( a small tank-like robot) will be dropped on the moon by a capsule (spacecraft)

Team Indus is looking to micro-etch 1.4 million names on the tiny cube. At Rs 500 collected for every name, it would earn the company Rs 70 crore , a sort of crowdfunding initiative.
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But Rs 70 crore is still less than the total estimated project cost of $70-80 million (over Rs 400 crore).

Team Indus is in talks with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to carry the rover on a PSLV ( Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) sometime around September 2017. The deal is likely to be signed within two months.
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Former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal and automobile designer Dilip Chabria have reportedly started funding the project.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/business/now-you-can-have-your-name-written-on-the-moon-for-rs-500/story-pHjUJZLhtd0SoXYWN1C06N.html

Just hearing these plans through media their website(http://www.teamindus.in/) doesn't cite much..

"Well, three cheers to Sharma, but our real baby is INSAT."

 

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