25 experiments in race to board TeamIndus spacecraft to Moon

Bengaluru, Jan 4 ( IANS) An experiment seeks to study photosynthesis on the Moon, and yet another proposes brewing beer to study yeast formation. These are just a couple of the 25 ideas that Bengaluru-based TeamIndus has shortlisted in its bid to find suitable experiments to fly aboard its lunar spacecraft scheduled for launch in 2017.

More than 3,000 teams participated in TeamIndus' Lab2Moon competition, a global challenge for students under 25 years of age to imagine, design and build a project that could accelerate human evolution into a sustainable multi planetary species, the company said in a statement.

"We are absolutely thrilled that as many as 3000 teams from all around the world participated in this race to the Moon," said Rahul Narayan, TeamIndus Fleet Commander.

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 statement added.

The winning experiments will be announced in March 2017, said TeamIndus that recently signed a launch contract to land a spacecraft on the Moon with Indian space agency Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO).

TeamIndus is the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPrize. For demonstrating its landing technology, TeamIndus has already won a $1 million milestone prize.

The goal of the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE is to ignite a new era of space exploration by lowering the cost and inspiring the imagination of the next generation.

--IANS

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