In a historic move to reach the moon, India is all set to launch it’s first private lunar mission soon. A project, Team TEAR (Electrostatics Active Radiation Shield) led by Saumil Vaidya is shortlisted in a contest by TeamIndus’s Lab2Moon to fly to the moon.
TeamIndus’s Lab2Moon invited students from across the word to participate in the contest and come up with a project that could be flown to the moon. From the numerous projects, Vaidya’s Mumbai-registered project and another experiment from Italy were announced winners by TeamIndus on March 15.
According to a report published in a leading English daily Times Of India, Vaidya, said ‘the lunar project aims to protect the humans from radiation on the moon. “The idea is to build an electrostatic radiation shield around a spacecraft and lunar habitat,” he added.
However, the main challenge for the Team TEAR is to obtain fund to send their project. The project requires a fund of Rs. 4 Crore by April 15 and weighs only 250 gm with three vats of power.
TeamIndus is scheduled for launch at Sriharikota on December 28, 2017, and will touch down on the moon’s Mare Imbrium on January 26, 2018.
Saumil Vaidya is a former student of Swami Vivekananda International School in Borivli, Mumbai, Maharashtra. His team members are Aishwarya Mungale, studying in Goa University, and Aniket Kamat of Kolhapur.
TeamIndus is the only Indian participant in the global Google Lunar X Prize competition, which envisages landing a spacecraft on the moon with a rover.
