Bengaluru firm Team Indus to design and build moon lander for NASA

Bengaluru-based private aerospace firm Team Indus is part of a consortium that has bagged a contract from US space agency NASA to design and build a lander for its next lunar mission in 2020.

A lander is a spacecraft that lands on an astronomical body.

NASA has selected three commercial moon-landing service providers to deliver science and technology payloads under Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) as part of the Artemis program.

The designing of the 21st century lunar lander is NASA’s new mission and the cost of the project is estimated to be over $250 million.

Astrobatic, Intuitive Machines, and Orbit Beyond are the three companies which have received contracts. Orbit Beyond has hired Team Indus for equipment design and construction. Orbit Beyond, which a received $97 million contract, has proposed to fly as many as four payloads to Mare Imbrium, a lava plain in one of the Moon’s craters, by September 2020.

Founded in 2010 by Rahul Narayana, Team Indus was a finalist for the $30 million Google XPrize Lunar Prize contest.

Team Indus has the backing of Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Tata Group doyen Ratan Tata and Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal.

In 2018, Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of Isro, terminated an agreement with Team Indus for launch services. Team Indus was planning to land a spacecraft and rover on the moon, but could not mobilise funds to hire a rocket.