Team Indus challenges global youth, announces Lab2Moon

Team Indus, a space technology startup and the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE, on Wednesday, announced the launch of Lab2Moon, a competition to challenge the brightest young minds globally to think beyond our planet and create an experiment to fly on board the TeamIndus spacecraft to the Moon in 2017. This will mark the first opportunity for a non-government experiment to fly to the moon since 1976.

As part of Lab2Moon, youngsters between 14 and 25 years have to imagine, design and build a project that would catalyse the evolution of mankind as a sustainable multi-planetary species. TeamIndus believes that in the future, mankind will not be bound only to earth. Lab2Moon will look for experiments in sustainable living that will have benefits both on earth and beyond. Lab2Moon seeks to challenge students to come up with unique experiments for their projects - which could range from investigating how seeds can grow in space through to examining new possibilities in renewable energy.  

Rahul Narayan, TeamIndus Fleet Commander, said, "The Team Indus mission is designed to be democratic, inclusive and driven by the people. Lab2Moon reflects that ethos. We hope that a generation of youngsters will be inspired to become change-makers and help create a better tomorrow.” 

Registrations open today on L2M.teamindus.in. Teams of up to three members will be required to write a 300 word overview of their project, share drawings and upload a 2-minute video explaining why it should go to the Moon. The last date for registering teams is the 20^th of August, 2016.

A jury of internationally-renowned scientists and technologists including Dr. K. Kasturirangan, former Chairman of ISRO, will shortlist 20 teams by the 25^th of August, 2016. These teams will then develop a working prototype by the turn of the year. In January 2017, the 20 shortlisted teams will be flown to Bangalore to showcase their project to the jury. The winner will be declared on 26^thJanuary, 2017.