Mumbai youth's lunar project shortlisted to go to the moon

India, and especially Mumbai, is going to possibly find a place on the moon.

Saumil Vaidya, former alumnus of Swami Vivekananda International School in Borivli, led a lunar-related project called Team EARS, short for Electrostatics Active Radiation Shield. It has now been shortlisted to fly to the moon by TeamIndus, India's first private lunar mission.

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In the results of TeamIndus's Lab2Moon contest declared on March 15th, Vaidya's Mumbai-registered project was declared winner along with a project from Italy. The contest invited students from across the world to design and build an experiment that could be flown to the moon.

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Vaidya, who now works in Pune, told TOI that the project was made with an aim to protect future human settlers on the moon from radiation.

"The idea is to build an electrostatic radiation shield around a spacecraft and lunar habitat," he said. His team included Aishwarya Mungale, studying in Goa University, and Aniket Kamat of Kolhapur.

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Vaidya said that now their challenge is to obtain corporate funding of Rs 4 crore by April 15 so that their project, weighing a mere 250gm with three vats of power, can be sent to the moon.

"Once we obtain sponsorship, we have to begin work on the flight model of the experiment, which has to be ready by October," said Vaidya.

TeamIndus is scheduled for launch at Sriharikota on December 28, and would land on the moon's Mare Imbrium in the early hours of January 26, 2018.

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