Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch its Chandrayaan-2 mission, an advanced version of its previous 2018 mission with the objective of deeper lunar surface probe, and another mission by Team Indus, a group of space enthusiasts who want to unfurl the tricolour on the moon's surface as part of a global lunar competition.
Team Indus, comprising mostly young engineers and led by IIT-Delhi alumnus Rahul Narayan, is planning the mission as part of a global contest to win $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE, which stipulates the rover of a competing team has to move 500 metre on the moon's surface and should be able to beam back high-definition images back to Earth.
Confirming the use of PSLV service for the Team Indus project, Isro chairman A S Kiran Kumar told TOI, "Team Indus has signed an agreement with Antrix (Isro's commercial arm) for using the launch service of PSLV."Explaining the difference between the two missions, the Isro chairman said, "Both the missions are scientifically and technically totally different. Even the instruments used in the two spacecrafts will be different. There is no question of any comparison."Team Indus is using the service of PSLV to take its 600-kg baby spacecraft to the lunar orbit.
General question - with all these (not surprising) schedule shifts to the right, what are the odds the deadline also gets shifted a few months months into 2018?
The deadline to land on Moon is now extended to March 31 next year instead of December 31 this year, according to hosts Google and XPRIZE.Lone Indian Moon landing contestant TeamIndus and its four global competitors on Wednesday got a three-month extension from contest organisers to complete their space feat.The deadline to land on Moon is now extended to March 31 next year instead of December 31 this year, according to Google and XPRIZE who announced the contest a few years back.
New Delhi (Sputnik) — India's first privately funded lunar mission TeamIndus has got an extension of deadline for launching its moon rover for the $30 million Google Lunar Xprize (GLXP).TeamIndus and its global rivals now have to complete their missions by March 31, 2018 irrespective of the launch date. Earlier, GLXP organizers had fixed the launch date as December 31, 2017."The launch date is not a factor anymore. The teams will have to complete their missions by March 31, 2018," read a GLXP statement.TeamIndus' will launch the rover with the help of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)'s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The mission was set to begin on 28 December 2017, but the latest extension gives it more time to run tests.
I can only imagine ISRO's embarrassment if team indus succeeds and Chandrayaan-2 fails....
In ISRO we trust!https://medium.com/teamindus/in-isro-we-trust-8ce42f6c7c78
Last month, the judges returned to check the preparedness six months ahead of launch. "We got the thumbs up to start building the final spacecraft and in six months' time we will be launching and landing on the moon.