Discovery Channel to Air Story of Indian Spacetech Startup Team Indus that Aimed for the Moon

Discovery, the leading infotainment television channel, will premiere a one-hour special show titled MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON based on the exciting journey of Bangalore-based space tech startup TeamIndus on 30th October at 9 PM.

The show captures the best of this eventful and enlightening seven-year journey of a team which germinated with a group of friends coming together and went on to become TeamIndus.

[caption id="attachment_127011" align="aligncenter" width="800"] MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON will be premiered on 30th October at 9 PM only on Discovery Channel[/caption]

Team Indus, which had become a poster boy for local Spacetech enthusiasts in India, had hit a major roadblock in December last year after India's space agency, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), cancelled the its contract with the startup as Team Indus could not raise sufficient funds.

It started in 2007 when The Google Lunar XPRIZE was announced—the largest incentivized space exploration challenge in human history. A small group of friends came together and coughed up personal resources to register last minute as the only Indian team in the global contest. This young enthusiast team, with no aerospace background, had the grit, the tenacity to take on the best in the world in their endeavor to win the $30 million, Google Lunar XPRIZE.

MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON has garnered huge traction from marquee advertisers. The on-air broadcast of the show is Co-Presented by Amazon Echo and Co-Powered by Levi Strauss and PUBG, Nokia as the Mobile Partner. Sony Bravia, ForeverMark, Idea 4G, Honda Motorcycles and Phillips Trimmer have come on board as Associate sponsors.

Conceived in a server room in Noida, near India’s capital, Rahul Narayan helmed the whole challenge and took the first step of deciding to participate in this global lunar race. He started looking out for people who would join him out of sheer passion unaware about the challenges the team would face as the race would progress. An inhouse robotic rover named ‘Ek Choti si Asha’ was designed with the Ackerman steering concept and a deployable masthead.

What happened next? Don’t miss to watch MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON that brings to you a spectacular journey of an aerospace startup that came together, to reach for the moon! Can they possibly meet the harsh technical demands of a lunar mission? And even so, from where will they raise the enormous amount needed to get to the moon! Pitted against several resourceful teams from across the globe, does TeamIndus stand a chance to win this race for space?

Watch one-hour special series MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON on 30th October at 9 PM only on Discovery Channel.

Discovery Channel to Air Story of Indian Spacetech Startup Team Indus that Aimed for the Moon

Discovery, the leading infotainment television channel, will premiere a one-hour special show titled MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON based on the exciting journey of Bangalore-based space tech startup TeamIndus on 30th October at 9 PM.

The show captures the best of this eventful and enlightening seven-year journey of a team which germinated with a group of friends coming together and went on to become TeamIndus.

[caption id="attachment_127011" align="aligncenter" width="800"] MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON will be premiered on 30th October at 9 PM only on Discovery Channel[/caption]

Team Indus, which had become a poster boy for local Spacetech enthusiasts in India, had hit a major roadblock in December last year after India's space agency, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), cancelled the its contract with the startup as Team Indus could not raise sufficient funds.

It started in 2007 when The Google Lunar XPRIZE was announced—the largest incentivized space exploration challenge in human history. A small group of friends came together and coughed up personal resources to register last minute as the only Indian team in the global contest. This young enthusiast team, with no aerospace background, had the grit, the tenacity to take on the best in the world in their endeavor to win the $30 million, Google Lunar XPRIZE.

MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON has garnered huge traction from marquee advertisers. The on-air broadcast of the show is Co-Presented by Amazon Echo and Co-Powered by Levi Strauss and PUBG, Nokia as the Mobile Partner. Sony Bravia, ForeverMark, Idea 4G, Honda Motorcycles and Phillips Trimmer have come on board as Associate sponsors.

Conceived in a server room in Noida, near India’s capital, Rahul Narayan helmed the whole challenge and took the first step of deciding to participate in this global lunar race. He started looking out for people who would join him out of sheer passion unaware about the challenges the team would face as the race would progress. An inhouse robotic rover named ‘Ek Choti si Asha’ was designed with the Ackerman steering concept and a deployable masthead.

What happened next? Don’t miss to watch MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON that brings to you a spectacular journey of an aerospace startup that came together, to reach for the moon! Can they possibly meet the harsh technical demands of a lunar mission? And even so, from where will they raise the enormous amount needed to get to the moon! Pitted against several resourceful teams from across the globe, does TeamIndus stand a chance to win this race for space?

Watch one-hour special series MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON on 30th October at 9 PM only on Discovery Channel.

Bengaluru Startup Team Indus' Moon Mission Got Cancelled By ISRO

Bangalore-based Team Indus was making all the right noises for India globally. In 2014, It became one of the five lucky teams to participate in the prestigious Google Lunar X Prize and even bagged $1 million prize money, in 2015

Notably, Team Indus was the only Indian entry into Google Lunar X Prize, a global race to reach the moon. The startup is supposed to land a robot on the Moon's surface and take HD pictures.

Today however, in a breaking news report by The Ken, Team Indus has hit a major roadblock after Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) cancelled the contract because the startup could not raise sufficient funds.

According to the report, The contract was signed with Antrix Corporation Ltd., an ISRO’s commercial arm, to launch the indigenously developed and privately-funded lunar rover onboard ISRO’s PSLV launch vehicle. The launch was scheduled for December 2017 but was postponed to March due to insufficient funds.

The contract was cancelled in December, according to ISRO officials. The officials also mentioned that the startup was almost bankrupt.

The total cost of the mission was estimated a $70 million, of which the startup had raised about $35 million (approximately ₹250 crore), and about to raise the remaining amount by March 2018.

Team Indus also had a “rideshare” agreement with Japanese space startup to carry a 4 kg robotic rover on its 600-kg spacecraft.

"While TeamIndus did remarkably well when it came to raising money from marquee angel investors, it needed both public donations and institutional investors, neither of which are easy to find in India for such ventures", said the The Ken report by Seema Singh.

Indian Startups Are Naming Their Offices After Newton, Shakespeare And Here's why

What makes a company standout? No, it is not the products or their services, it is the people that make a company successful. Happy employees equals a happy company. Companies in the Indian startup ecosystem understand this thing and are trying their level best to make their employees their priority so that their employees make the firm’s work their priority.

Recent times have seen startups putting in more effort into improving the nomenclature of the company rather than just working mechanically as a well oiled machine. Innovative decor, room themes, game rooms, nap rooms etc. are no more exclusive just to big companies like Google or Apple.

In fact, according to a recent report by Quartz, this trend is spreading like a wild fire in the Indian startup ecosystem. More than their work, startups in the country are gaining popularity among the workforce for the facilities, environment and perks they have to offer to their employees. This is one of the many reasons that many youngsters nowadays prefer working for a startup rather than going for a renowned brand.

So, it comes as no surprise that Flipkart, which is considered as one of the most successful Indian startup till date, has also embraced the trend.

India’s numero uno player in the ecommerce segment describes its 11 floors office as being “designed to drive innovation”. The office, which features a large digital map of India projecting a real-time feed of orders being placed across the country, has spaces named after Isaac Newton, Andy Warhol, William Shakespeare and even has an area dedicated to The Beatles.

Each of the 11 floors have a character of their own, each distinct from other. “From science to sports and fashion to music, each floor is designed and inspired by human greatness in various fields,” said the company during the unveiling of the new office.

Flipkart’s online retailer Myntra has rooms named after fashion designers like Coco Chanel and Gucci, Hollywood stars like Alfred Hitchcock and Jack Nicholson, sporting world biggies like Roger Federer, Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Schumacher, technologists and inventors like Barbara Liskov, Bill Gates, and brands such as Apple, Coca-Cola etc.

Uber, which went for an image makeover earlier this year, decided to rename its conference hall the Peace Room, in place of the earlier War Room. The step can be considered as an effort on the company’s part to spread peace and positivity among the employees rather than them feeling that they’re going to a war each time they enter the conference room.

India’s very own mobile wallet payment biggie Paytm has its rooms named after world cities like London, Paris, Tokyo, New York, among many others. The rooms reportedly symbolise Paytm’s ambition to conquer the world market one day. “Every meeting room is named after an important city in the world. It symbolises ‘built in India, built for the world,'” Paytm senior vice-president Shankar Nath said to Quartz. “It inspires us to widen our horizons, and develop products and solutions that have universal appeal,” he further added.

Private aerospace startup Team Indus has rooms in its Bengaluru office named after Space missions like Mangalyaan, Voyager, Pathfinder, Pioneer, and Challenger and inspirational words like Aspire, Believe, and Create.

“Everyone who works at Team Indus was a space nerd while growing up, so these names keep the magic alive for them,” said marketing head Sheelika Ravishankar in a statement to Quartz.

There can be various upsides of having a colourful workplace with innovative themes. “Rituals and routines can play a role in developing an organisational culture by creating narratives within the firm,” said Suresh Bhagavatula from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in a statement to Quartz. He further added, “Some talent may join startups because of these rituals and routines.”

Japenese Startup To Partner With Indian Spacetech Startup To Land on Moon

Moon is once again an object of desire, courtesy tech giant Google, which under its aptly named Lunar XPRIZE competition is trying to inspire and challenge innovators, engineers, and entrepreneurs world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The thing that makes the competition all the more lucrative is the $20 million prize amount that the winner will walk away with.

The latest contender which is almost very close to winning the Lunar XPRIZE is Team HAKUTO, a product of Japan-based startup ispace Inc. The startup has just obtained a launch vehicle to fulfil its plans to send to the Moon late next year.

Extending a helping hand to HAKUTO is India-based Team Indus, which already has a contract in its kitty for launching its own rover, aboard a rocket developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), in December next year. The two, Team HAKUTO and Team Indus, have entered into a partnership for the same.

Industry experts claim that for Team HAKUTO, whose much famous rideshare with team Astrobiotic recently went kaput, this partnership with Team Indus came at just the right time to secure itself a launch vehicle so as to be able to stay in competition for the X-Prize which closes by the end of this year.

Also famous as "NASCAR on the Moon," Lunar X-Prize's first position will go to the first private company that is successfully able to make a landing on the Moon, do a 500 meters (1,640 feet) -dash, and then is able to send high-definition photos and video back to planet Earth. While the first position gets $20 million, the second position gets $5 million. In order to win either of the prizes, the teams must be able to prove that 90% of their mission costs were funded by private sources. In addition to this, there is a separate $5 million prize money to be given as a bonus. This will be available to teams that are successful in meeting several "bonus" challenges, which includes making a trip to the Apollo sites, and discovering water ice.

It is interesting to note that the news about Team Hakuto competing for the Lunar X-Prize comes just a few days after PT Scientists, a German team, announced that it has been successful in securing a ride to the Moon for next year. Other contenders in contention for one of the biggest competition on Earth includes American company Moon Express and Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL.

The door is soon closing for the rest of the 16 teams of the Lunar X-Prize to book themselves tickets to orbit. Let's wait and watch who all make the cut.

[Top Image: japantimes.co.jp]

This Bangaluru-Based Startup Set To Launch India's First Privately Funded Space Mission

What can be considered a thing of real pride for India, a Bangaluru based startup, Team Indus, has become the winner of the first leg of the Google Lunar Xprize and earned itself a prize money of $1 million in funding. The space centric startup will use the funding to launch India’s first privately-funded space mission.

The space entrepreneurs from Team Indus are hopeful of launching a rover by July next year, which can then be expected to land on Moon's surface in approximately 20 days after the launch. The rover is said to weigh around 20kgs, and will be capable of carrying a payload of 250 grams.

According to the current plans, the rover will be launched from the much famous Sriharikota space centre in India. Apparently, Team Indus is receiving immense support from ISRO with a few former ISRO scientists even providing their expertise for this first-ever privately-funded space mission. The entire project is said to be worth over a gigantic $60 million.

According to the space startup, it took them a total of five long years to ideate and conceptualise the entire project from front to back. Further, after they saw that no other Indian startup was taking part in the Google competition, they decided to take the plunge.



What makes this particular private space mission so special is the fact that it is taking into account public opinion in order to narrow down what should be actually sent as the 250 grams payload with the rover to the moon in 2017. In order to arrive at the final decision, the startup has launched an event 'Lab 2 Moon’, where it has asked suggestions from 14-25 years aged students for the 250 gram payload.



Launched in the year 2007, the main idea behind the Google Lunar Xprize competition is to attract space entrepreneurs towards creating affordable access to the Moon and beyond by incentivising them.

According to the rules of the competition, any team which is successfully able to land a privately funded rover on the moon, which then travels 500 meters, and transmits back high definition video and image, will be awarded with a prize money of $30 million.

The first team emerging victorious by completing the mission walks home with a prize money of $20 million, while the second position team gets $5 million in prize money.

Hence, Bangaluru's Team Indus isn't solo in this battle of the highly competitive space voyage race. Here's wishing Team Indus all the very best, so that it becomes the first among its counterparts to land on the moon and also simultaneously that final prize money amount of a whopping $20 million.

Bangalore's Team Indus Bags Google Lunar Xprize of $1 million To Land Robot On Moon

Last year we reported that how a startup from Bangalore - Team Indus has successfully chosen for Google space mission, now the latest update is that Team Indus has been successful in making India proud by becoming the first private enterprise that will land a robot on the moon. The Bengaluru based Startup has also won $1 million in prize for competing with some world class companies and completing an intermediate milestone.

Founded by Indranil Chakraborty, Rahul Narayan and Julius Amrit, Team Indus is one of the five lucky teams in the $30 million Google Lunar Xprize. The startup was successful in crossing a major milestone by developing a robot that is capable of landing on the moon and then travel five hundred meters on its surface and send back information to the Earth.

The Bengaluru startup has raised seed capital funding from a number of investors in the past. Some of the famous names are Sharad Sharama, the founding member of thinktank Ispirt, Shekhar Kirani and Subrata Mitra of Accel Partners and Vivek Raghavan, chief product manager of UIDAI.

According to Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur turned academic, “This is good news for India for sure, but it is a better news for mankind because it shows that governments no longer have a monopoly on space exploration.”

The Bengaluru based startup is battling it out with some of the top private funded companies from all around the word. The companies include Space-IL, an Israel based company backed by several top-notch Israeli institutions, Astrobotic, which is a spinoff from the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute and Moon Express.

Around 26 best teams from all around the world are competing in the Google Lunar Xprize. The mission is expected to cost a whopping $30 million, when it is complete. “I expect it will inspire Indian entrepreneurs to solve many big problems that the country has,” added Wadhwa.

Xprize was launched in India last month. It is an incentive driven competition that has an aim of bringing together problem solvers from all across the globe to take on big challenges head on. India is the first country for Xprize outside the United States of America. Industry veteran Ratan Tata, Paresh Ghelani of BPG Motors and Naven Jain of Inome are the famous names responsible for bringing Xprize to India.

Bangalore's Team Indus Bags Google Lunar Xprize of $1 million To Land Robot On Moon

Last year we reported that how a startup from Bangalore - Team Indus has successfully chosen for Google space mission, now the latest update is that Team Indus has been successful in making India proud by becoming the first private enterprise that will land a robot on the moon. The Bengaluru based Startup has also won $1 million in prize for competing with some world class companies and completing an intermediate milestone.

Founded by Indranil Chakraborty, Rahul Narayan and Julius Amrit, Team Indus is one of the five lucky teams in the $30 million Google Lunar Xprize. The startup was successful in crossing a major milestone by developing a robot that is capable of landing on the moon and then travel five hundred meters on its surface and send back information to the Earth.

The Bengaluru startup has raised seed capital funding from a number of investors in the past. Some of the famous names are Sharad Sharama, the founding member of thinktank Ispirt, Shekhar Kirani and Subrata Mitra of Accel Partners and Vivek Raghavan, chief product manager of UIDAI.

According to Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur turned academic, “This is good news for India for sure, but it is a better news for mankind because it shows that governments no longer have a monopoly on space exploration.”

The Bengaluru based startup is battling it out with some of the top private funded companies from all around the word. The companies include Space-IL, an Israel based company backed by several top-notch Israeli institutions, Astrobotic, which is a spinoff from the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute and Moon Express.

Around 26 best teams from all around the world are competing in the Google Lunar Xprize. The mission is expected to cost a whopping $30 million, when it is complete. “I expect it will inspire Indian entrepreneurs to solve many big problems that the country has,” added Wadhwa.

Xprize was launched in India last month. It is an incentive driven competition that has an aim of bringing together problem solvers from all across the globe to take on big challenges head on. India is the first country for Xprize outside the United States of America. Industry veteran Ratan Tata, Paresh Ghelani of BPG Motors and Naven Jain of Inome are the famous names responsible for bringing Xprize to India.

Bangalore's Team Indus to land robot on Moon with Google

Bangalore's Team Indus is making all the right noises for India globally. It has become one of the five lucky teams to participate in the prestigious Google Lunar X Prize. The Winner of this competition walks away with enormous prize money of 30 million dollars.

Notably, Team Indus is the only Indian entry into Google Lunar X Prize, a global race to reach the moon by 2015. It has been shortlisted to compete for two of the Milestone prizes: the Imaging prize and the Mobility prize.

The shortlisted five teams are required to land a robot on the moon by the end of the next year. Team Indus is working hard round the clock to land to launch a rover on I's work horse Polar Satellite Launch vehicle.  An Ultraviolet telescope Lunar Ultraviolet Cosmic Imager will be adjunct to this rover. This instrument is being developed by a team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), which is being head by Jayant Murthy, who is a senior professor at IIA. The instruments will work as a wide field UV imager to scan the sky in UV wavelength.

Team Indus Google Lunar X Prize Mission Animation Video -

According to the IIA team of researchers working on the project, one of the key challenges would not only to make an instrument which is compact but also to ensure that the instrument is able to function properly in the varying temperatures of the Moon.

The IIA team was able to become a part of this project after defeating several top notch institutions all over the country.

Team Indus has great chances of bagging the prize because of its eclectic team. The founding team consists of people from diverse fields like management, Air Force, engineering and entrepreneurship etc.  Their combined passion, knowledge and experiences are almost unbeatable.

Indus Team’s advisory board consists of some of the country’s most celebrated thought leaders from various industries who wholeheartedly believe in the team’s dedication and hardwork.

Team Indus has an aim of leading India to the next generation of aviation technology and space exploration. And while marching towards their aim, they also want to side by side redraw the boundaries of private initiative, unforgettably impact communities and inspire young minds.

Bangalore's Team Indus to land robot on Moon with Google

Bangalore's Team Indus is making all the right noises for India globally. It has become one of the five lucky teams to participate in the prestigious Google Lunar X Prize. The Winner of this competition walks away with enormous prize money of 30 million dollars.

Notably, Team Indus is the only Indian entry into Google Lunar X Prize, a global race to reach the moon by 2015. It has been shortlisted to compete for two of the Milestone prizes: the Imaging prize and the Mobility prize.

The shortlisted five teams are required to land a robot on the moon by the end of the next year. Team Indus is working hard round the clock to land to launch a rover on I's work horse Polar Satellite Launch vehicle.  An Ultraviolet telescope Lunar Ultraviolet Cosmic Imager will be adjunct to this rover. This instrument is being developed by a team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), which is being head by Jayant Murthy, who is a senior professor at IIA. The instruments will work as a wide field UV imager to scan the sky in UV wavelength.

Team Indus Google Lunar X Prize Mission Animation Video -

According to the IIA team of researchers working on the project, one of the key challenges would not only to make an instrument which is compact but also to ensure that the instrument is able to function properly in the varying temperatures of the Moon.

The IIA team was able to become a part of this project after defeating several top notch institutions all over the country.

Team Indus has great chances of bagging the prize because of its eclectic team. The founding team consists of people from diverse fields like management, Air Force, engineering and entrepreneurship etc.  Their combined passion, knowledge and experiences are almost unbeatable.

Indus Team’s advisory board consists of some of the country’s most celebrated thought leaders from various industries who wholeheartedly believe in the team’s dedication and hardwork.

Team Indus has an aim of leading India to the next generation of aviation technology and space exploration. And while marching towards their aim, they also want to side by side redraw the boundaries of private initiative, unforgettably impact communities and inspire young minds.