We’ve heard it a million times in songs and sonnets, of romancers big talking about getting those stars and moon for their lovers. Well they still might not be able to do that, but they can surely immortalise their love by giving them the gift of their beau’s name plate on the moon.
Indian aerospace startup TeamIndus will be only providing this gift to Indians and would begin its services as soon as 2018.
The prize winning startup
TeamIndus is a Bengaluru based startup which actually won a million-dollar prize from Google for its lookalike moon rover. The rover called the WALL-E can shoot high quality images, video and data and then beam it from the moon’s surface to the company’s mission center in India.
The rover will be launched from Indian Space Research Organization into the moon’s orbit by the end of 2017. TeamIndus is India’s only entry in the Google-funded Lunar XPrize challenge. The prize bounty is $30 million.
High hopes from the mission
If the landing comes clear, TeamIndus might actually end up becoming world’s first ever privately held company to make a soft landing there.
Although, according to Team Indus their competition isn’t any less. Expecting tough competition from Israel, it wants to make India the fourth nation after United States, Russia and China to land gently on the lunar surface and unfurl the national flag. The estimated budget for the entire mission is estimated around $60 million.
Leaving names on the lunar surface
The opportunity to leave their names on the moon is, as mentioned before, only for Indians right now. Which in fact, makes this news all the more special.
Indians will get a chance to have a plaque with their names on them being sent to the moon only for a mere price of INR 500.
The space startup offers its public ‘donors’ to have their names micro-engraved on a small-sized aluminium object and that will be placed on the surface of the moon when the rover lands on the moon.
Sheelika Ravishankar, Jedi Master – Marketing and Outreach of TeamIndus says, “The name plaque plan is part of a crowd-funding effort.” I think its great, solves the expenses management for the innovative startup and brings it into the limelight by catering to the mainstream. Involving the people in your venture is the easiest way to make it an instant hit.
And come to think it, when in future travelling to moon becomes a relatively less big of a deal, people might find those plaques with the names of their ancestors on them. How exciting would that be!
Images: Google
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