William Shakespeare didn’t care much about it. But there have been many Bollywood songs, where the leading man would talk about etching his beloved’s name on the Moon. However, little did that naive woman know that he wasn’t kidding and will actually be able to do that, for a sum that amounts to 1/4th the cost of her lip balm.
Vying to become the first private entity to soft-land their spacecraft on the Mooon, Bengaluru based Aerospace startup Team Indus isn’t kidding when they say they will fly your name to Moon for a paltry sum of Rs. 500. As a part of Google Lunar X-Prize, the startup has started a crowdfunding initiative, which will allow Indians the opportunity to leave their name on the Moon.Here’s how it works. Team Indus will micro-engrave the names of its donors on a small aluminum object, which will then be placed on the Lunar surface when their lander sets foot on the Earth’s natural satellite. Their mission also involves landing a Rover on the moon and then making it travel for at least 500 meters, as it transmits high-definition videos and images back to Earth.
The mission’s launch is planned for December 28 this year on ISRO’s PSLV rocket, which will undertake a journey of 3.84 lakh kilometres from Earth to finally land on the moon on January 26, 2018, which is also India’s Republic Day. Since the announcement of this plan, they’ve already received entries from over 10,000 Indians and are looking to raise up to $10 million by getting 1.4 million citizens to imagine if the piece of land where their name is dropped becomes theirs by default. You’d know what we’re saying if you’ve ever come across someone who drops a kerchief to reserve a seat on the bus.
Oh and just in case if you are among those, where even your name can’t travel on its own, here’s what you can do. For Rs, 10,000, Team Indus will fly a 2m x 2m x 2m cube which will bear your group’s name and have space for 20 of its members to inscribe their name on it. We aren’t kidding. Follow the link below to see it yourself.
Click here: https://back.teamindus.in/adda#backer-box
